The National Assembly largely adopted, on Tuesday July 18, the bill to increase the means of justice of the Keeper of the Seals, Eric Dupond-Moretti, with the support of the deputies Rassemblement national (RN) and Les Républicains (LR) .
After its adoption in mid-June by the Senate, the text was supported at first reading by the deputies by 388 votes against 111. On the left, the elected officials La France insoumise (LFI) and the ecologists voted against, the socialists and the communists were divided between abstention and rejection.
Mr. Dupond-Moretti welcomed this vote to “turn the page on the homelessness of our justice”. This bill will continue its parliamentary path in a joint committee at the start of the school year, where deputies and senators will try to reach a compromise text.
On the right, the leader of the LR deputies, Olivier Marleix, says he has “obtained satisfaction” with the addition of 3,000 additional prison places. “This does not take anything away from the need to have firmer pure criminal policy texts tomorrow, but it was a condition,” he insisted.
To “halve” the delays, the government promises a justice budget of nearly 11 billion euros in 2027, against 9.6 billion today, and the hiring in five years of 10,000 people, including 1,500 magistrates.
Rather consensual, this bill took a more controversial turn at the Palais-Bourbon, in the context of the riots which followed the death of Nahel M., 17, killed by a police officer during a traffic check on June 27 in Nanterre. The Republicans have shown their firmness on sovereign subjects, and conditioned their votes on obtaining 3,000 additional prison places, in addition to the 15,000 that the government aims to create by the end of the five-year term.
Remotely activate “sneaker” phones
The objective – a total of 78,000 places in 2027 – seems very ambitious given the difficulties in building new places of detention. According to the Ministry of Justice, 4,300 places will be operational by the end of the year.
“Many of these prison places will obviously not see the light of day within the time limits indicated”, denounced Pascale Bordes (RN), while voting for the text, which “will make it possible to carry out in part the criminal policy that we want”.
Mr. Dupond-Moretti launched “a solemn, republican appeal, so that locally the attempts to obstruct” the construction of detention centers cease.
The left denounces for its part “an obsession with all-prison”, and the ecologist Jérémie Iordanoff criticizes the negotiations of the macronists “with the reactionary right”.
The riots overshadowed a sensitive subject of the bill: the possibility of remotely activating “snitch” cell phones in certain investigations. The text provides in particular for being able to film or record without their knowledge, thanks to their connected devices (telephones, computers, etc.), people targeted by investigations for terrorism, serious crime and organized crime. This concerns “dozens of cases a year”. “We are far from the totalitarianism of 1984”, George Orwell’s novel, assured Mr. Dupond-Moretti, a former criminal lawyer.
The technique is already used by the intelligence services, and without the approval of a judge, who will be essential here, insisted the Keeper of the Seals. It will also be prohibited for certain professions: magistrates, lawyers, parliamentarians, journalists, doctors. But the left is alarmed by a “very dangerous slope” and “widespread surveillance”.
The subject, like others, gave rise to electric passes of arms between the “rebellious” and the Minister of Justice. After the riots, Dupond-Moretti repeatedly renamed LFI “incendiary France”, a term also used by the far right.