“Our essential goal is to reform French justice in a very specific direction: the defense of past and future victims”. A think tank and apolitical association for helping victims of insecurity, the Institute for Justice found itself under the spotlight and media criticism by organizing a rally on October 20 in tribute to the victims of this scourge, including little Lola, brutally murdered on the 14th of the same month by a woman of Algerian nationality under the influence of an OQTF. In this “Essential Interview“, Pierre-Marie Sève, its director and spokesperson, returns to the microphone of Laurence Beneux on the “political maneuvers” against the IPJ and the media treatment of the rally organized by the organization. After an exploration of the genesis of the current state of French justice, the jurist also addresses the complaint of the IPJ against the State for “security inaction” and recommends some measures that would prevent future victims from the side effects of “judicial laxity”.
And “symbol of the extreme right security”, “an association close to the extreme right”, “an association mobilized against a supposed laxity of justice”…, such were the descriptions given last month by most of the media on this organization composed of citizens, victims and experts (magistrates, lawyers, police forces). A stigmatizing lexical field that questions. “Le Monde, TF1, BFMTV… I explained to them that we were not subservient to any party, but they did not say so in their article”, deplores Mr. Sève on our set. According to him, the aim of journalists largely situated on the left was to “to scare” and to stifle substantive discussion.
On the accusation of political recovery of the murder of Lola
Organized and financed by the IPJ, this civic and apolitical gathering for the victims of insecurity, during which no political figure took the floor – only victims and experts were authorized to do so – had been planned since the end of September: it was therefore not specifically organized in response to the assassination of the 12-year-old schoolgirl, the organization recalled in a press release. “It could not be recovered politically, since no politician spoke and we only spoke about objectively serious, touching and moving subjects: the distress of the victims who would like to be heard”adds its director to our microphone.
The opportunity for him to thwart the choice of the media to focus their coverage of the rally more on the few slippages that occurred after the demonstration: “Some images we saw on the news channels, even we didn’t see them. There was a crowd from afar, at the other end of the square. So, yes, we saw people singing, but it was after the rally and there were about thirty of them out of the three to four thousand people there that evening.would like to inform Mr. Sève. “This rally scared a lot of people, so these people jumped on it, even if it meant twisting reality, hiding certain facts and highlighting, by twisting them, existing facts to discredit it and ensure that this [rassemblement] not be a success”, he analyzes. And regret: “With the hype we’re making in some media, [les voix des] victims were once again killed and silenced. »
On the accusation of proximity to Eric Zemmour
The IPJ spokesperson also wishes to formally deny the idea that the association is “close to Eric Zemmour”, an accusation made by several newspapers. “Eric Zemmour and his party approached the Institute for Justice during the campaign, in a professional manner, and we responded, as we would have done for any other party”says in his press release the lawyer, who continues: “Last year, I received Olivier Marleix, now head of the LR group in the National Assembly, in my office, because he was writing the LR program. […] I met the cabinet of Marlène Schiappa (En Marche), when she was minister, to whom I presented all our recommendations. In 2012, the Institute for Justice worked directly on writing Nicolas Sarkozy’s program. In 2017, the Institute for Justice organized the great Justice debate of the LR primaries.. “But no one accused us of being ‘close’ to these parties”he points out.
Crux of the « special mention of first in the ranking » awarded at the end of March by the IPJ to the political program of Reconquête! in its comparative table of the programs of the presidential candidates? In the ranking, Eric Zemmour comes first because his program included 13 of the measures recommended by the institute, then came Marine le Pen, who integrated 11, then Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, who had nine, and finally Valérie Pécresse (eight ). “We made this objective count. We were blamed for that. Listen: if the truth can be a reproach, we are proud of it and we are ready to take other reproaches if it is to fight for things as dignified and noble as the defense of victims.assures Mr. Sève to Laurence Beneux.
Lax justice?
81% of French people believe that French justice is too lax: this is the bitter observation shared on the left and on the right revealed by a study by the CSA Institute for the Institute for Justice published in early October and cited by Pierre-Marie Sap in this interview. According to him, three main problems, which overlap, explain the current failures of the judicial system.
Firstly, a lack of resources which results in particular in a lack of prison places and, consequently, in the material impossibility of judges to pronounce certain sentences. “It is clear that no government has taken up this problem of prison places […] Macron had promised 15,000 prison places over his first five-year term. Eventually, there were 2,000.recalls the spokesperson of the IPJ.
Second problem: the increase in crime in France, observed statistically, which increases the pressure on the French criminal chain. Since 1988, underlines the think tank, the number of attacks has been multiplied by 7: according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, of 40,000 acts of physical violence committed in 1988, in 2021, there are 291,760.
Thirdly, “a problem of ideology” : “Since the 1970s, the magistrates’ union, the center of the French judicial extreme left, has decided to fight for fewer prisons and more rehabilitation”explains the lawyer: “Ideology out of step with reality” stemming from the current of the new social defense, a French penal doctrine which has been emulated in the West, like the “French theory” (deconstructionist theories which will precede the wokist current). “This ideology goes back a long way: it gained a lot of strength in the 1980s under François Mitterrand”, reports Mr. Sève.
The IPJ files a complaint against the State
The right to security being a fundamental right guaranteed by article 2 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789, the Institute for Justice, among its various actions, also filed an appeal with the administrative court of Paris against the French State for “security inaction”. A legal action supported by a petition posted on its website. According to the association, “the lack of prison places, the weakness of the means of Justice, the encouragement of an ideologized Justice are all roots of insecurity, which nevertheless remain abandoned by the State”. Also, argues Pierre-Marie Sève, “If the State is condemned for security inaction, it would be symbolically very strong and it would push the government and parliamentarians to really take up the issue of insecurity, which they have taken up relatively little for several decades. »