At the end of a day of hearing by three investigating judges, the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) indicted on Friday the former Minister of Solidarity and Health, Agnès Buzyn, for “endangering of the life of others ”, because of its management of the health crisis linked to the coronavirus. It is also placed under the status of assisted witness for another count, that of “voluntary abstention from fighting a disaster”..
The only body empowered to judge ministers for facts accomplished during their mandate, the CJR has been investigating since July 2020 the management of the health crisis due to Covid-19. The institution has been seized of thousands of complaints – 14,500, according to the count of the Attorney General near the Court of Cassation, François Molins -, many stemming from standard forms offered online by lawyers opposed to the management of the crisis. sanitary, among which the disputed Me Fabrice Di Vizio. Sixteen were deemed admissible, relating in particular to the lack of equipment for caregivers or to the wanderings of the authorities concerning the obligation to wear a mask.
Now representative of the World Health Organization (WHO), Agnès Buzyn, 58, was Minister of Health from 2017 to February 2020, when – while the pandemic worried the whole world – she left her post to running unsuccessfully for the City of Paris. In June 2020, she caused a scandal by explaining to the World : “When I left the ministry, I cried because I knew the tsunami wave was in front of us. (…) From the beginning [de la campagne municipale], I was only thinking of one thing: the coronavirus. We should have stopped everything, it was a masquerade. “ A statement that went against his public positions. Before her resignation, she had indeed mentioned “Very low risks” of massive spread of Covid-19.
Other possible invitations
Mme Buzyn is implicated on the basis of a decree that she herself signed in May 2017, and which specifies that “The Minister of Solidarity and Health develops and implements (…) the rules relating to the health protection policy against the various risks likely to affect it ”. Since 2020, searches have taken place, targeting Agnès Buzyn, but also her successor, Olivier Véran, or former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe. Other summons before the CJR could target the two men, but also other members of the executive, in office or not. It remains to be seen whether this judicial agenda will have political consequences for Emmanuel Macron, while the latter seems ready to seek re-election in spring 2022.
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