2023-06-24 14:14:53
Friday, June 23, 2023, a citizen counter-power fell. The administrative court of Paris removed with retroactive effect the decree of April 2, 2021 by which the former Prime Minister Jean Castex had renewed the approval that the Anticor association had had since 2015 to seize an independent judge when the public prosecutor Republic, placed under the authority of the Minister of Justice, classifies without further action a file in matters of public probity.
It must be said that Jean Castex had poorly motivated his order: he issued the approval while making it known, in a curious and unsupported way to say the least, that Anticor did not meet the conditions of independence and good information of its members. .
But from there to an administrative tribunal first considering that a former member has an interest in acting against a decision favorable to his association [l’arrêté qui avait renouvelé l’agrément d’Anticor pour trois ans était contesté par deux dissidents de l’association, mais seul l’un d’eux avait vu sa démarche être jugée recevable en justice]then resumes without verifying the government’s assertion that the conditions for issuing the approval were not met, and finally accepts that the dozens of criminal proceedings initiated by Anticor since 2021 can be called into question, there was a not considerable that the Parisian administrative judges have crossed.
Read the analysis: Article reserved for our Anticor subscribers: the consequences of the withdrawal of approval for the anti-corruption association
The legal action brought by the former member was not formally directed against Anticor, but against an administrative act of the Prime Minister. It was therefore up to Matignon to defend this act, which was only done half-heartedly without the Prime Minister’s services even pleading during the public hearings before the administrative court, as if the probability of a defeat in court did not did not displease the executive.
Especially since the latter, moreover, had the possibility of rectifying the approval throughout the two years of proceedings before the administrative court. In fact, beyond the legal issues, the cancellation of Anticor’s license highlights a political problem, a widely denounced conflict of interest: to enforce the rule of law, an association must obtain from the government authorization to act, even though his actions can irritate those in power.
Challenge to the Prime Minister
The decision of the administrative tribunal must therefore be interpreted as a challenge to the Prime Minister. From now on entry of a new application for approval by Anticor, it is enough for him to note all ceasing business that the association, fiercely attached to its independence with regard to all the public or private authorities, has all the conditions provided for obtaining this approval. And the longer she lets the time go by, the more the suspicion of corruption tolerated by the authorities will increase. Because the judgment of June 23, 2023 has a dramatic symbolic and practical significance, except of course for the natural or legal persons criminally implicated by Anticor, for whom it constitutes excellent news.
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