Jean-Baptiste Kempf, a key developer of the VLC media player, a widely used open-source software, recently criticized the French government over the rejection of his wife, Audrey Prévost Kempf, from a judicial auditor recruitment process. On 23 February 2026, Kempf posted on LinkedIn, suggesting he might leave France, citing Gérald Darmanin, the French minister of justice, as the cause of the situation. Audrey Prévost Kempf had passed the oral exam for the École nationale de la magistrature (ENM), a prestigious French institution that trains judges and prosecutors. However, she was later informed that she could not participate in the competition due to a claimed "insufficiency of qualifying legal activity." Audrey Prévost Kempf had spent ten years working with Jean-Baptiste Kempf on the VideoLAN project, a free and open-source multimedia framework. However, her experience was not considered "particularly qualifying" in the legal, administrative, economic, or social fields under the new admission criteria introduced by a 2023 reform. The third recruitment competition, aimed at candidates from the private sector, requires at least four years of such experience. After a public appeal and further discussions, the administration, under the minister of justice, reversed its decision to reject Audrey Prévost Kempf and three other candidates from the third competition for the 2025 session. The Journal Officiel, France's official government gazette, announced on 30 September that the four candidates were finally admitted "definitively" to the third recruitment competition. Earlier decisions to reject them had been rescinded following a request to the competition jury president on 15 September. Two of the previously rejected candidates had been provisionally admitted in July. Maxence Mathey, an entrepreneur, had publicly expressed disappointment on 17 February, noting that the four rejected candidates could not replace other applicants with more academic backgrounds, as the 2025 session had fewer candidates than available positions. Audrey Prévost Kempf had previously shared her experience on LinkedIn, highlighting the challenges she faced with the administration. Gérald Darmanin responded to Kempf's post, stating he had not been personally involved in the dispute and expressed regret over the aggressive tone of the message. He confirmed that he had asked his administration to reconsider the decision before the formal appeal to the Conseil d'État, France's highest administrative court. Darmanin also expressed respect for Audrey Prévost Kempf's success in passing the difficult competition and acknowledged the need for magistrates with digital expertise. The 375 new judicial auditors of the 2026 ENM promotion, including 49 from the third competition, began their training on 16 February.