“Due to lack of resources, the missions of justice have been made impossible,” analyses former magistrate François Molins in Nîmes.

François Molins était à Nîmes ce jeudi 5 décembre. Midi Libre – MIKAËL ANISSET

This Thursday, November 5, the former Attorney General of the Court of Cassation, former Public Prosecutor of Paris, gave an interview to Midi Libre. A few hours before his speech on justice, financial matters and terrorism, at the Charles Gide Forum in Nîmes.

François Molins, why did you choose the judiciary ?

My parents were doctors and winegrowers, so it goes without saying that law was not really my calling! In all honesty, it was by chance that I enrolled in university after my literary baccalaureate, with the idea that law would open many doors for me. Very quickly, I knew that the profession of lawyer would not be for me. Embarrassed by this financial relationship between the lawyer and his client, I wanted mobility and could not see myself setting down my name somewhere and never moving again… So I chose to become a magistrate out of a passion for justice and to be both free and independent. But also, because in each case the primary motivation, on the part of the prosecution as well as the bench, remains the manifestation of the truth. And in no case the satisfaction of the individual interests of his clients.

Apart from two forays at the head of ministerial offices (1), you have spent your entire career on the side of the prosecution. Why such a choice?

In the judiciary, the judge is the one who decides. As such, he is the eminent figure of justice. However, in practice, his role is relatively limited in that he only decides on the cases submitted to him.
For his part, the prosecutor has a much more dynamic role! And that is precisely what attracted me to this position. On a daily basis, the prosecution works with all the administrations, the police, the gendarmes, the prefect, etc. Following, of course, the directives of the ministry, he leads a criminal policy adapted to a territory, while working with others. If he leads an effective and intelligent criminal policy, a prosecutor can even succeed in reducing crime.

You have spent 46 years in the service of justice. What do you think makes a good justice system, a good magistrate, and more specifically a good prosecutor ?

Good justice is both accessible justice, understood by litigants and which renders quality decisions within a reasonable time. In other words, the complete opposite of what we see today! The problem with our justice system is that it is entrusted with a huge amount of responsibility without the necessary resources. In short, its mission has been made impossible…
Magistrates, assigned to the public prosecutor's office as well as to the bench, must in my opinion have identical qualities to carry out their mission effectively: technical competence, of course, but also human qualities such as courage, because we are often required to make difficult decisions. But also listening, or even humility, because justice is a world where we often run the risk of making mistakes.

From 2011 to 2018, you were the public prosecutor at the Paris judicial court (2). Can we say that it was precisely in this position that you experienced the worst ?

Yes. I held this position in an anxiety-provoking context, with an exponential increase in the risk of terrorism before the attacks multiplied: the Merah affair (2012), the Charlie Hebdo attack, and those in Paris and its suburbs in November 2015. Or the truck attack on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice in 2016, one evening on July 14.
In this context, faced with extraordinary challenges, the pressure was immense. My team and I knew that we had no room for error in carrying out our mission. While we were working ever better and harder, and despite the quality of our relationships with the intelligence services, we were unable to stem the downward spiral of attacks. With this feeling shared by all of a “tunnel effect”, the end of which was in sight.

How did the man behind your position manage to preserve himself in such conditions?

Personally, I have always taken responsibility for my emotions. My faith, the passion I have for my job and my family have clearly allowed me to cope. That being said, a parquet floor is a team that helps each other. And I am certain that if in the face of difficulty, we were able to be courageous and strong, it is because there were several of us.

In this same position as Paris prosecutor during the wave of attacks, you became a familiar judicial figure for many French people. How do you manage this popularity acquired in spite of yourself? ?

For someone discreet like me, it was quite complicated to come out of anonymity. But we had no choice! This wave of successive terrorist attacks that France experienced caused a situation of chaos making communication essential.

As a reminder, since he leads all investigations and inquiries, the prosecutor has a monopoly on this communication. In this post-attack context, I absolutely had to put words to the horror, be clear, rigorous and objective, but also show that the police and gendarmes were doing their job. In order to then end up reassuring the public. I owed this communication work to our fellow citizens. To gain trust, we must be transparent!

Regarding your intervention at the Charles Gide Forum this Thursday (December 5), you notably discussed the view of justice on financial matters. How do you manage to manage the pressures when you are leading the investigations in cases such as Cahuzac or Bigmalion? ?

In my opinion, we should not try to manage these pressures but rather detach ourselves from them. In political-financial affairs, whatever you do (investigative acts, opening of proceedings, dismissal without follow-up) you are criticized no matter what. For my part, I simply tried to work normally, correctly, conscientiously, by systematically investigating for and against. During my 7 years at the Paris prosecutor's office, I had cases against everyone. Which gave me the opportunity to receive criticism from all sides (laughs).

Today, financial justice is in crisis. The investigation crisis accentuated by the lack of judicial police officers is felt all the more in this area where the cases are heavy and the investigative acts to be carried out often take longer than elsewhere. When I was in office, the investigation of a political-financial case lasted 8 years on average. No doubt that today it must be worse.

8/Finally, looking back on your career, is there a moment or an encounter that is happier than the others to remember? ?

I have obviously experienced friendly and festive moments in my career. But among the strong, emotionally intense moments, I think back to the many letters that were sent to me at the time of the attacks. By relatives of victims, but also French citizens and even foreigners, especially after the attacks of Friday the 13th (November 2015, Editor's note). Without making me happy, reading these letters, which I did not expect, offered me moments filled with very positive emotions. To properly fulfill one's mission and to see that people are aware of it, I find that particularly gratifying for my part.

(1): François Molins served as chief of staff, successively, to the Ministers of Justice Michèle Alliot-Marie and Michel Mercier.

(2): Created in 2019, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office now exercises public prosecution for all French terrorist cases. In place of the Paris judicial court that had jurisdiction until then.

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