On the initiative of the demonstration organized, Thursday, October 20, place Denfert-Rochereau in Paris, the Institute for justice (IPJ) promises that it will not be a question only of Lola, 12 years old, brutally murdered on the 14 october. “We are going to discuss the case, but we will not make this little one the center of the mobilization”justifies Pierre-Marie Sève, general delegate of the association, even though the hashtag #ManifPourLola appeared on the first posters distributed by the IPJ, before disappearing. “It will be a rally for the victims, for all the victims,” assures Mr. Sève.
The demonstration, however, passes for the first mass tribute to Lola, 12, whose death has shaken public opinion. Its history has also divided a political field, whose association “independent”which looks like a simple circle of “victim defense” and reflection on justice, swear to keep away.
“No politician, no politicized person, will speak tonight”, repeats Pierre-Marie Sève. The event is widely relayed on social networks by relatives and supporters of Eric Zemmour, including the party Reconquête! is the only one to collectively make the trip. ” The extreme right ? It is true that they are very proactiverecognizes the leader of the IPJ. But their recovery is beyond us. »
Zemmour, “first in the ranking” of the IPJ
However, the IPJ knows the former journalist from the Figaro. In a program comparator published on its site at the end of March, the association awarded it the “special mention of 1is of the rank “the identity candidate taking up thirteen of the thirty measures recommended by the« institut »among which the expulsion of foreign offenders or the elimination of social assistance to the parents of offenders.
“I would add that Eric Zemmour, in person, received the IPJ at his HQ a few months ago for a work meeting. He is the only candidate to have responded to this invitation.notes the IPJ on its site. “They just called on us, they were interested in our ideas, we are very happy about that”, answers Pierre-Marie Sève, who refers to the video interviews that he also granted in the campaign, in addition to Eric Zemmour, Valérie Pécresse and Marine Le Pen. Asked about the work done with the IPJ, Eric Zemmour’s team did not respond to our requests.
Created in 2007, the IPJ association has always sought political support in its fight against a “lax justice” and for the establishment of more repressive laws. In addition to its conferences, petitions and mobilizations, the organization quickly showered elected officials with notes. As early as 2009, the IPJ tried to influence the writing of a penitentiary bill. Until organizing a symposium entitled “The sentence and its application, a justice with two faces”in the premises of the National Assembly, under the patronage of the Keeper of the Seals of the time, Michèle Alliot-Marie, and of the deputy (UMP) Jean-Paul Garraud, rapporteur of the text.
Passed to the National Rally, where he is a justice referent, the now elected MEP is still pleased to have introduced the IPJ: “I am one of the first, if not the first, to have heard them officially in Parliament. I gave them a sort of institutional recognition. » But there is no question for Jean-Paul Garraud of making it an ideological partner: “The IPJ avoids any bias. Afterwards, they talk about order, social defense and security. And if today we are not in the mold of ambient generosity, we are necessarily accused of being right or far right. »
“Symbol of the extreme right security”
To establish its legitimacy in the debate of ideas, the IPJ brandishes its ” scientific publication “ biennial: the French journal of criminology and criminal law. But for more than ten years, the association has made itself known above all by bouncing on various facts with strong media echoes and by multiplying the actions against governments considered too permissive. Last action, this year: an appeal, to the more than 22,000 signatures claimed, to “sue the French State, for “safety inaction”, before the administrative court of Paris”.
“A think tank is a platform for reflection, political negotiation, bringing together people who do not speak the same language”defines Xavier Carpentier-Tanguy, professor at Sciences Po think tank specialist:
“With the IFP, on the contrary, we feel a closed structure, without real links with third-party organizations, a cell of coups and media actions. »
The association is in fact dedicated to the denunciation of the “state bankruptcy”of the “links between immigration and delinquency” and what she calls the “government of judges”. Positions that embrace the struggles of part of the political class.
“The IPJ is the symbol of an identity and security extreme right that tries to find scientific dignity in its ideological obsessionssays former magistrate Antoine Garapon, secretary general of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Justice. It contributes nothing to the debate of ideas, but only brings a criminological veneer to the exploitation of miscellaneous facts. »
A conservative “galaxy”
“We are not political, we just want to get our messages across”replies Pierre-Marie Sève, while maintaining the “partisan” of his association, as of the demonstration of this Thursday. “We’ve been thinking for a year or two that we have to make things happen. The victims follow one another, but they are forgotten just as quickly once the media blast has died down. There, we feel a real collective awareness. »
If the IPJ maintains that it has no political agenda, this association is at the heart of a much larger “galaxy”, brought to light by an investigation by the Monde in 2019. An aggregate of structures, sharing a conservative and economically liberal vision of society, founded or directed by members or relatives of the same family: the Laarmans. Vincent Laarman, nephew of the family patriarch, François, is one of the founders of the IPJ.
Whether they invest in school (SOS education, pinned by the Court of Auditors in 2020), taxes (Associated taxpayers), pensions (Safeguarding pensions) or alternative health (Santé nature innovation), these structures together benefit from several million euros in annual donations and are digging their furrow with aggressive marketing. “The IPJ reproduces the same pattern of action as the other entitiesconfirms researcher Xavier Carpentier-Tanguy. Each one aims at its media target, tries to lock a space of reactions, in the service of a larger ideological enterprise. »