While some politicians denounce “the partiality of Justice in the trial of parliamentary assistants of the FN (now RN)”, which targets in particular Marine Le Pen, a survey by the CSA Institute for CNEWS, Europe 1 and the JDD highlights this Saturday that 65% of French people believe that magistrates are not impartial in a more general way.
The French have doubts. According to a survey* from the CSA Institute for CNEWS, Europe 1 and JDD, published this Saturday, November 16, 65% of respondents believe that Justice is not impartial.
The question of this impartiality of the judicial authority has clearly returned to the public debate with the requisitions of the Paris prosecutor's office, in particular against Marine Le Pen in the context of the trial of the parliamentary assistants of the National Front (now National Rally) .
Indeed, the prosecution requested in particular five years of ineligibility against the finalist of the last two presidential elections. A decision which was criticized by the far right, who denounced political justice. A position also supported by the former Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin but refuted by the Minister of Justice, Didier Migaud, who on CNEWS recalled that the latter was “independent”.
This statement from the tenant of the Chancellery does not, however, resonate with the French since according to the results of the study, only 35% of them have confidence in the impartiality of the judicial authority.
A large disparity in position between men and women
In detail, we notice a disparity between men and women on this question. Although the majority of both genders believe that Justice is not impartial, the former are 58% in this case compared to 71% for the latter.
This very strong lack of female confidence in French justice can be explained in particular by the impression of impunity felt by women. Indeed, according to figures put forward by the Letter from the Observatory on Violence Against Women, women represent 85% of victims of sexual violence for a conviction rate of 59% in 2022.
It should be noted, however, that according to Infostat, there is also different judicial treatment between male and female offenders. The latter are less often convicted and when they are, they “benefit from less severe sanctions than men both in terms of type of sentences and length of imprisonment.”
Furthermore, according to the CSA Institute survey, the youngest respondents have less confidence in the impartiality of the judicial authority. Thus, 70% of those under 35 consider it biased compared to 66% for those aged 35-49 and 57% for those over 65.
Less confidence among respondents close to the extremes
From the point of view of the socio-professional categories of respondents, the results show that 70% of CSP- believe that Justice is not impartial, compared to 69% for the inactive and 56% for CSP+.
On the political side, strong contrasts emerge in the results. Two clans are thus clearly felt, on one side part of the left and the presidential camp and on the other the right and the two extremes.
Thus, respondents close to the Socialist Party, the Ecologists and Renaissance generally believe that French justice is impartial. They are thus 62% for the PS, 60% for EELV and 59% for the Macronist clan to have this vision.
Conversely, respondents claiming to belong to the National Rally, the Republicans and France Insoumise agree on the issue and believe that the judicial authority is not impartial. 87% for the RN, 67% for LR and 58% for LFI support this position.
* Survey carried out on November 14 and 15 by self-administered online questionnaire on a nationally representative sample of 1,010 people aged over 18, using the quota method.
