“Even on Christmas Day, he was on the ground while almost all the ministers were eating log“, welcomes a right-wing deputy. Gérald Darmanin, the new Minister of Justice, is once again traveling to Marseille, Thursday January 2.
In just ten days, since his appointment at Place Vendôme, he is the minister we have seen the most on the ground and in the media. And this is no coincidence: his objective is to take on his new role as quickly as possible.
Gérald Darmanin intends to make an impression and quickly don his costume in a government threatened by censorship. For this, the former occupant of Place Beauvau chose Marseille, one of the symbolic cities in the fight against drug trafficking, which he knows well: he has already been there around thirty times as Minister of the Interior.
And so here he is again as Keeper of the Seals. This Thursday, Gérald Darmanin is going there mainly to listen to the professionals. It's a “working day“, assures his entourage to franceinfo. The passage to the courthouse then to the Baumettes prison will be done without cameras or journalists, but the minister will give interviews at the end.
As for announcements, Gérald Darmanin has already made several in the press. In particular, he intends to put in isolation the “100 biggest drug traffickers“from France,”inspired by the model applied to the biggest terrorists we have arrested“, specified the new Minister of Justice at the Parisian.
The formula hits and is repeated everywhere… while this project has already been launched by his predecessor Didier Migaud, less adept at shock formulas, who did not have time to concretize his “plan against drug trafficking”, announced there. two months ago, also in Marseille. Gérald Darmanin has already sent instructions to the prison administration and is preparing to send his first circular to prosecutors on penal policy.
“He is, as always, hyperactive“, comments a right-wing MP who supports him:”Gérald Darmanin wants to show that in Justice as in the Interior, he holds his place.“But on the left the Darmanin personality irritates:”His style reveals that he did not understand that he had changed functions. Justice is balance, not a contest of strong words“, estimates a socialist deputy, annoyed by this Minister of Justice who “acts as if it is going to revolutionize things, but, for the moment, it remains hollow“, according to him.
The new Minister of Justice assumes his “method” : “My office is the field (…) You have to know how to move, communicate, listen to understand the country's problems“, In The Parisian. “Place Vendôme, I wish there was a before and an after“, says the man who has already left his mark on Place Beauvau. But, for that, the Minister of Justice will have to win a first political battle: that of the Budget to obtain the means for his ambitions.
