The « Bashing Judge », a slow poison of democracy – Liberation

While Marine Le Pen has just been sentenced to four years in prison, including two close, and to five years of ineligibility with immediate execution for embezzlement of the European Parliament, the systematic criticism of the judicial institution, or « Bashing judge », takes a disturbing turn in France.

Under the guise of denouncing an alleged « Government of judges », Some political leaders and a fringe of public opinion, often on the right and the far right, accuse the magistrates of wanting to influence the course of history by neutralizing political figures. This rhetoric has no legal basis and weakens the bases of democracy.

One of the recurring arguments of the contemptors of justice consists in claiming that the magistrates would assume a power of interpretation of the law contrary to the popular will. This suspicion is unfounded.

French courts do not act outside the legal framework: they apply the laws voted by Parliament. And when a judicial decision seems severe, it is the legislator – and alone – that it is up to reform the law on which this decision has based. If certain sanctions, such as complementary penalties of ineligibility with provisional enforceable, seem excessive, nothing prevents rulers from modifying them. In reality, the silence of the legislator testifies less to a grip of judges than an assumed choice … or a form of political cowardice.