A few days before the decision, expected on October 3, of the commission of instruction of the Court of Justice of the Republic on the dismissal or not of Eric Dupond-Moretti for “illegal taking of interests” before the latter, the Minister of Justice affirmed, Tuesday, September 27, by presenting his budget to the press, that “This indictment [l’] never prevented from working”. He wants proof of this “Historic Triple” constituted by the 8% increase in justice appropriations included in the finance bill for 2023, identical to that of the 2021 and 2022 budgets.
In three years, the resources devoted to justice, prisons and the judicial protection of young people will have increased by 2 billion euros, to 9.6 billion, or a gain of 26%. Since the election of Emmanuel Macron in 2017, the increase has reached 40%. The minister says he wants “continue to catch up on thirty years of abandonment of justice, budgetary, human and political abandonment”.
Revalorization of clerks
Mr. Dupond-Moretti reiterates the promise to create 1,500 magistrate posts by 2027, including 200 by 2023. He recalls that 700 magistrate posts were created during Mr. Macron’s first five-year term. They were 27 under the mandate of François Hollande while 102 posts had been removed under that of Nicolas Sarkozy.
After the spectacular increase of 16% on average in the remuneration of magistrates scheduled for October 2023, a revaluation of 12% is promised over three years (2022, 2023 and 2024) for clerks. But Eric Dupond-Moretti announces 1,500 job creations in five years for these procedural specialists, significantly below the needs, estimated between 2,500 and 3,000 jobs by the States General of Justice.
If the minister « assume » to devote a significant part of the investments to the program to build 15,000 prison places, he also says he wants to bet on alternatives to prison “when justified”. A circular should soon be distributed to develop the pronouncement of community service sentences, at a time when judges seem to be turning away from it despite a more numerous and diversified offer of positions.
The elements of the 2023 finance bill
The 2023 finance bill was to be presented to the Council of Ministers on Monday, September 26, at the same time as a new public finance programming law setting a five-year budget trajectory.