This "behaviour had no place in the hemicycle". Élisabeth Borne reframed the Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti this Wednesday following the outcry he caused the day before in the National Assembly by making two arms of honor. The head of government made her remarks during a telephone conversation with the minister, AFP learned from those around the Prime Minister.
After the incident, several politicians called for the resignation of Éric Dupond-Moretti. The Keeper of the Seals made these gestures after the intervention of the leader of the Republican deputies, Olivier Marleix, who listed convictions, indictments or investigations concerning members of the presidential camp, including the Minister of Justice.
Faced with the outcry, Éric Dupond-Moretti recognized and "regretted" the arms of honor, which according to him were "not addressed to the deputy Marleix", but to the attack "on the presumption of innocence".
Olivier Marleix asked Emmanuel Macron on RTL on Wednesday to "draw the consequences" of this affair, by sanctioning the minister for this "scandalous gesture". He lamented an "insult to national representation". "It would have been a deputy from La France insoumise, he would have been excluded, I have no doubt, for 15 days," he noted. “We all have to be absolutely exemplary. That is to say, we have to stand up and behave even better in the context of a public debate than we behave in everyday life", had previously estimated on the same radio the government spokesman, Olivier Véran.
The subject was not raised by Emmanuel Macron in the Council of Ministers, according to Mr. Véran. The socialist deputy Jérôme Guedj told him on France 2 that he "did not see how the head of the executive could keep a minister whose attitude itself (goes) against this requirement of exemplarity" of the National Assembly. He lamented having "heard nothing from the executive", denouncing "a kind of impunity", "a disastrous signal".
The president of the RN Marine Le Pen group estimated on Twitter that these arms of honor "discredit" Éric Dupond-Moretti "in the eminent functions which are his" and that "it is up to the Prime Minister, now, to take his responsibilities". "In any other democracy, the prime minister would have demanded her resignation," added PS first secretary Olivier Faure.
