Retailleau at the Interior and Migaud at Justice are already in conflict

POLITICS – Already trouble. While Michel Barnier’s government has only been in place for 48 hours, the brand new Ministers of the Interior and Justice, LR Bruno Retailleau and former Socialist MP Didier Migaud, have been displaying their disagreements in the press since day 1.

The proof is in the statements of the two concerned this Monday, September 23, just a few hours after the transfer of power with their respective predecessors. Invited to the 8 p.m. news on TF1, the very conservative Minister of the Interior warned: “There must be sentences handed down, they must be carried out, prisons must be built.”

A supporter of a hard line on prison matters but also on immigration, Bruno Retailleau then stressed that he wanted “take all means to reduce immigration in France.” Even if it means proposing a new immigration law, barely a year after the painful adoption of a text that was partly rejected by the Council of State.

“He must know that justice is independent”

But the former senator is up against the very clear line drawn by the Minister of Justice, who declared on France 2: “He has his convictions, he is Minister of the Interior, I am Minister of Justice. I too must show authority, firmness, ensure that there is no impunity, while ensuring that the rule of law is respected, that procedures are respected.”

Didier Migaud was then questioned more specifically on a measure envisaged by Bruno Retailleau and detailed in The Figaro, which consists of the short-term incarceration of offenders “from the first offences” as is the case in the Netherlands. The Minister of Justice has little appetite for this proposal which encroaches on his missions. “He must know that justice is independent in our country and that this is an essential thing,” he still tackled on France 2.

The two men are due to meet shortly, with Bruno Retailleau having confirmed that Didier Migaud would be “one of his first dates.” Compromises will have to be found, otherwise there will be exacerbated conflict, as has already been seen in the past. For example, in the previous government, with Éric Dupont Moretti and Gérald Darmanin.

Different interests and a historical dispute

This war between the two ministries is actually classic. A quick tour through the archives of the national dailies The World or The Figaro allows us to rediscover the story of the tense relations between Gaston Defferre and Robert Badinter on the subject of the “liberty and security” law of 1981, Jean-Pierre Chevènement and Élisabeth Guigou on juvenile offenders in 1999, Brice Hortefeux and Michèle Alliot-Marie on the subject of, among other things, the increase in sentences for attackers of the elderly in 2010, or Manuel Valls and Christiane Taubira in particular on the penal reform of 2013.

In 2021, researcher Mathieu Zagrodzki explained to BFMTV that this “The almost permanent confrontation between the two administrations is explained by the fact that they do not represent the same interests.” He detailed : “In Beauvau, you are under pressure from the police unions which are very powerful and which believe that justice is not severe enough. In Place Vendôme, you represent an administration which is very attached to the individuality of sentences and which must face the lack of places in prison.” It remains to be seen who, Didier Migaud or Bruno Retailleau, will have the upper hand this time.