Former HR Director of the National Police
The senior civil servant, prefect of Eure, was previously HRD of the national police. An echo of the positions of Michel Barnier who had already caused an outcry when he was a candidate in the primaries of the right and he advocated bringing together Interior and Justice in the same ministry.
“An administrative takeover bid from Place Beauvau to Place Vendôme, to the detriment of the independence of justice,” reacted the Union Syndicale des Magistrates (the majority union among magistrates). And added: “This composition is unprecedented under the Ve Republic and constitutes a very bad signal in terms of the independence of the judicial authority, a condition of the balance of powers, of taking into account judicial specificities and of the capacity of our ministry to usefully weigh in on budgetary and procedural arbitrations.
Traditionally, the Prime Minister’s office housed a justice department headed by a magistrate and distinct from the interior department. This architecture is important. The head of the department is generally the contact for the ministries at Matignon where the arbitrations are made.
“A prefect will approve, or not, certain projects for the appointment of prosecutors, will arbitrate disagreements between the two ministries on a given text of criminal policy, will validate government projects for the reform of civil law, or relating to the status and working conditions of justice personnel,” warns the Magistrates’ Union.
