The three new names proposed to sit on the Constitutional Council were announced on Tuesday, February 15, by the Head of State and the presidents of the two assemblies. Emmanuel Macron proposes to appoint Jacqueline Gourault, current Minister of Territorial Cohesion and Relations with Local Authorities. Richard Ferrand, President of the National Assembly, proposes the magistrate Véronique Malbec, current chief of staff of the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti. Gérard Larcher, President of the Senate, proposes for his part François Seners, Councilor of State. If the law commissions of the two assemblies give their approval following hearings of these three personalities, they will replace, on March 14, three women at the end of their mandate, Claire Bazy-Malaurie, Nicole Maestracci and Dominique Lottin.
The choices made by the President of the Republic and by the President of the National Assembly may surprise and raise questions. First and foremost, that of Véronique Malbec. This 63-year-old judicial magistrate with a busy career was general prosecutor of the Rennes Court of Appeal, hierarchical superior of the Brest prosecutor when the latter decided on October 13, 2017 to close the preliminary investigation concerning the affair of Mutuelles de Bretagne. If Richard Ferrand wished to appoint a judicial magistrate to the Constitutional Council, while Mmy Maestracci and Lottin are leaving, he was spoiled for choice. Taking the risk of appointing the magistrate who filed her case is politically at best like nonsense.
Moreover, at the end of the five-year term where the divorce between the judiciary and the Keeper of the Seals is in broad daylight, this appointment is not really the sign of a desire for appeasement. Mme Malbec, whom senior magistrates criticize for having accepted, in July 2020, to serve Mr. Dupond-Moretti when many others had refused the post of chief of staff, would have had difficulty finding a position in the judiciary. A solution considered for her this fall, had been to appoint her prefect.
Former director of the National School for the Judiciary and former director of judicial services under three Keepers of the Seals (Michèle Alliot-Marie, Michel Mercier and Christiane Taubira), Ms.me Malbec had returned to jurisdiction, as general prosecutor in Rennes then in Versailles before returning to the chancellery. Nicole Belloubet had appointed her secretary general of the ministry in September 2018.
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