Éric Dupond-Moretti (born 20 April 1961) is a French-Italian lawyer and politician who was appointed Minister of Justice in 2020 by President

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France since 2017 French presidential election, 2017. ''Ex officio'', he is also one of the two Co-Princes of Andorra. Prior to his presidency, M ...

. As a criminal defence lawyer he is renowned for his record number of acquittals which earned him the nickname "Acquitator", some of the controversial figures he defended, as well as his outspoken personality. On 6 July 2020, Dupond-Moretti took office as Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals in the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

Jean Castex Jean Castex (; born 25 June 1965) is a French politician who was the country's Prime Minister from 3 July 2020 to 16 May 2022. He was a member of The Republicans (LR) until 2020, when he joined La République En Marche! (LREM). Castex served f ...

. His appointment came as a surprise to many political commentators. Dupond-Moretti has overseen a sharp increase in the budget devoted to the judiciary system following reports of lengthy procedures. He also successfully defended a bill in front of the

French Parliament The French Parliament (french: Parlement français) is the bicameral legislature of the French Republic, consisting of the Senate () and the National Assembly (). Each assembly conducts legislative sessions at separate locations in Paris: ...

in order to strengthen the severity of the sentencing process, stating the judiciary response to minor offenses was "too weak to be effective".

Early life

Dupond-Moretti is the only son of Jean-Pierre Dupond, a metal worker from Avesnois and Elena Moretti, a housekeeper from Italy. His paternal grandparents, Achille and Louise, were also workers. Fatherless at the age of four, his mother raised him alone. Like many famous fatherless criminal lawyers in France, most notably Robert Badinter, his childhood gave him a sense of injustice. Dupond-Moretti attended secondary school at the Catholic Lycée Notre-Dame in

Valenciennes Valenciennes (, also , , ; nl, label=also Dutch, Valencijn; pcd, Valincyinnes or ; la, Valentianae) is a commune in the Nord department, Hauts-de-France, France. It lies on the Scheldt () river. Although the city and region experienced a ...

where he obtained his

baccalauréat The ''baccalauréat'' (; ), often known in France colloquially as the ''bac'', is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the ''lycée'') by meeting certain ...

Early career

After taking his oath as a lawyer on 11 December 1984 in

Douai Douai (, , ,; pcd, Doï; nl, Dowaai; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord département in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe some from Lille and from Arras, Do ...

, Dupond-Moretti enrolled at the

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (un ...

of Lille. Working for a Lille law firm, he began his career in the

Labour Courts Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labou ...

and then as a court appointed lawyer under the mentorship of Lille lawyer Jean Descamps and Toulouse lawyer Alain Furbury. For his results (more than 145 acquittals in 2019), Dupond-Moretti is nicknamed "Acquittator" (' + ') in the courtrooms. Notable clients have included aid group Zoé's Ark, Jérôme Kerviel and

Julian Assange Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. WikiLeaks came to international attention in 2010 when it published a series of leaks provided by U.S. Army i ...

, but also Patrick Balkany, Karim Benzema, Georges Tron and the brother of terrorist Mohammed Merah. In 2013, Dupond-Moretti refused the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

Cinema

Dupond-Moretti appeared as himself in the Claire Denis film '' Bastards''. He also played a judge in the

Claude Lelouch Claude Barruck Joseph Lelouch (; born 30 October 1937) is a French film director, writer, cinematographer, actor and producer. Lelouch grew up in an Algerian Jewish Family. He emerged as a prominent director in the 1960s. Lelouch gained critica ...

film '' Everyone's Life''.

Political career

Dupond-Moretti chaired the support committee for incumbent Socialist Mayor Martine Aubry in the 2008 municipal election in

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the Nord ...

. He also signed a letter in her favour in ''

Libération ''Libération'' (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Initially positioned on the far-left of France ...

'' before the 2011 Socialist Party presidential primary in which she placed second. On 6 July 2020, Dupond-Moretti was named

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a Ministry (government department), ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of ju ...

and Keeper of the Seals of France by President

in the

of Prime Minister

. In 2021, Macron directed Dupond-Moretti and Secretary of State for

Child Protection Child protection is the safeguarding of children from violence, exploitation, abuse, and neglect. Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides for the protection of children in and out of the home. One of the ways to ...

Adrien Taquet Adrien Taquet (born 3 January 1977) is a French politician of La République En Marche! (LREM) who served as Secretary of State for Child Protection in the governments of successive Prime Ministers Édouard Philippe and Jean Castex from 2019 ...

to develop proposals for tightening laws regarding child sexual abuse after a high-profile scandal involving prominent pundit Olivier Duhamel. In the 2021 regional election, the

La République En Marche! Renaissance (RE), previously known as La République En Marche ! (frequently abbreviated LREM, LaREM or REM; translated as "The Republic on the Move" or "Republic Forward"), or sometimes called simply En Marche ! () as its original name, is a ...

list led by

Laurent Pietraszewski Laurent Pietraszewski (born 19 November 1966) is a French politician of La République En Marche! (LREM) who served as Secretary of State for Pensions in the governments of successive Prime Ministers Édouard Philippe and Jean Castex from 2019 to ...

in the northern region of

Hauts-de-France Hauts-de-France (; pcd, Heuts-d'Franche; , also ''Upper France'') is the northernmost region of France, created by the territorial reform of French regions in 2014, from a merger of Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy. Its prefecture is Lille. The ...

on which Dupond-Moretti was placed was eliminated in the first round of voting. It garnered than 10 percent of the vote and failed to win a single seat. Later in 2021, Dupond-Moretti was placed under investigation by the '' Cour de Justice de la République'' (CJR) over allegations he had used his ministerial position to settle scores with judges who had investigated some of his more prominent clients and friends, including former President

Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Sei ...

. In late 2022, Dupond-Moretti's position as Minister of Justice came under scrutiny amid the Lola affair, which saw a teenager murdered in Paris by an Algerian illegal immigrant. In Parliament,

Éric Pauget Éric Pauget (born 18 August 1970) is a French businessman and politician who has represented the 7th constituency of the Alpes-Maritimes department in the National Assembly since 2017. He is a member of The Republicans (LR). Political career ...

of The Republicans held the Ministry of Justice "responsible" for the murder as it failed to have the perpetrator deported prior to the murder.

Political positions

In May 2015, Dupond-Moretti declared his support for banning the National Front. In August 2020, Dupond-Moretti signed a preface to a book written by head of the national federation of hunters Willy Schraen, in which he mocked "environment ayatollahs". His comments, written before his appointment as a government minister, caused an uproar, forcing him to backtrack.

Personal life

In 1991, Dupond-Moretti married Hélène, a juror he met during a

trial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribun ...

; they have two children. Now divorced, he has been in a relationship with singer Isabelle Boulay since April 2016. A passionate hunter, Dupond-Moretti owns a

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium ...

farmhouse with

retriever A retriever is a Dog type, type of gun dog that retrieves Game (hunting), game for a hunter. Generally gun dogs are divided into three major classifications: retrievers, flushing spaniels, and pointing breeds. Retrievers were bred primarily to ...

s and trained

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

s for

falconry Falconry is the hunting of wild animals in their natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. Small animals are hunted; squirrels and rabbits often fall prey to these birds. Two traditional terms are used to describe a person ...

Publications

* with Stéphane Durand-Souffland, ''Bête noire'', Éditions Michel Lafon, 2012 * with Loïc Sécher, ''Le Calvaire et le Pardon'', Michel Lafon, 2013 * with Stéphane Durand-Souffland, '' Directs du droit '', Michel Lafon, 2017

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dupond-Moretti, Eric 1961 births Living people 20th-century French lawyers 21st-century French lawyers 20th-century French essayists People from Maubeuge French people of Italian descent Légion d'honneur refusals Members of the Borne government French Ministers of Justice