Only the Court of Justice of the Republic can judge members of the government for acts committed in the exercise of their functions.
Gestures that caused indignation and anger on the benches of the National Assembly. During a session devoted to the examination of a bill from the Renaissance group on the establishment of a mandatory ineligibility sentence against perpetrators of violence, on Tuesday evening March 7, the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, admitted having addressed two arms of honor in the direction of Olivier Marleix. At the podium, the president of the group Les Républicains (LR) in the Assembly had just recalled the existence of several legal cases concerning members of the presidential camp, including one aimed at the Keeper of the Seals.
After these mood swings, the minister apologized, acknowledging a “gesture that was not adequate” and who was not “not addressed to the deputy [Olivier] Marleix (…) but on the presumption of innocence” that the parliamentarian would have, according to him, despised. An intervention which did not bring down the protests among the deputies. “In any other democracy, the Prime Minister [Elisabeth Borne] would have demanded” there “resignation” of Eric Dupond-Moretti, launched the first secretary of the socialist party Olivier Faure, on Twitter. “It’s up to the Prime Minister now to take responsibility,” also pleaded Marine Le Pen, the president of the National Rally (RN) group in the Assembly.
The National Assembly has “no power” to sanction a member of the government
Concretely, what can happen to the Keeper of the Seals as a result of these arms of honor? Although the facts took place within the National Assembly, he cannot be sanctioned by the lower house of Parliament. “It’s not in my power”, reported Wednesday on franceinfo Yaël Braun-Pivet, President of the Assembly. Only parliamentarians can be sanctioned by this institution, like Thomas Portes (La France insoumise), excluded from the Assembly for 15 days for contempt after having posted on Twitter, during the debate on the pension reform, a photo on which he set foot on a ball bearing the image of the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt.
In December 2009, the ecologist deputy Noël Mamère had been deprived for a month of a quarter of his parliamentary allowance, also for an arm of honor, a recalled on Twitter the former Minister of Justice Jean-Jacques Urvoas. In general, arms of honor addressed to a parliamentarian may constitute a delay of contempt,“punished by a fine of 7,500 euros”, exposes article 433-5 of the Penal Code.
Acts committed in the exercise of the functions of Minister
In the case of the Keeper of the Seals, the difference lies in the status. “Eric Dupond-Moretti is a minister, the acts were committed in the exercise of his functions”, emphasizes Benjamin Fiorini, lecturer in private law and criminal sciences at the University of Paris 8. In France, the only body that can judge a member of the government for “acts performed in the exercise of [ses] functions and qualified as crimes or misdemeanors at the time they were committed” is the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR), details article 68-1 of the Constitution.
For Eric Dupond-Moretti to find himself before these judges, “There are two possibilities”, lists Benjamin Fiorini. “The first would be for the victim, in this case Olivier Marleix, to file a complaint”, he explains. If no complaint is filed, “the public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation may act on his own initiative, after obtaining the opinion of the complaints committee [de la CJR]to whom complaints are normally lodged”, continues the lecturer. “To my knowledge, if that happened, it would be unprecedented,” he says, however.
Clearly, unless there is a complaint from Olivier Marleix, there is little chance that Eric Dupond-Moretti will be penalized. Why, in this case, are the deputies Olivier Faure and Marine Le Pen appealing to Elisabeth Borne? “Sanctions can be taken by the Prime Minister, but then these would be political decisions”, explains Benjamin Fiorini.