The reactions are unanimous, after the death of the former Minister of Justice, Robert Badinter, at the age of 95.
Political representatives, former colleagues and friends pay tribute, this Friday, to the man whose name will forever be associated with the abolition of the death penalty in France.
Also readDisappearance of Robert Badinter, the man in the fight against the death penalty
A few minutes after the announcement of his death, which occurred on the night of Thursday to Friday, Emmanuel Macron praised, on his X account, “a figure of the century, a republican conscience, the French spirit”.
The head of state also considered that Robert Badinter never stopped “pleading for the Enlightenment”.
Lawyer, Minister of Justice, man for the abolition of the death penalty.
Robert Badinter never stopped pleading for the Enlightenment.
He was a figure of the century, a republican conscience, the French spirit.
pic.twitter.com/3IJ9jekLSd
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) February 9, 2024
“Our rights and freedoms owe him so much”
The Prime Minister also quickly reacted on X (formerly Twitter).
“From the courtrooms to the stands of the National Assembly and the Senate, and to the Constitutional Council, he will have devoted every second of his life to fighting for what was just, to fighting for fundamental freedoms,” commented the tenant of Matignon.
“We owe him so much.
Our rights and freedoms owe so much to him,” he insisted.
All his life, he made the voice of Justice thunder.
Man of law and values.
Lawyer, minister, statesman, Robert Badinter has left us.
From the courtrooms to the stands of the National Assembly and the Senate, and to the Constitutional Council, he will have devoted… pic.twitter.com/cRvchgdqZH
— Gabriel Attal (@GabrielAttal) February 9, 2024
Minister of Justice under socialist president François Mitterrand (1981-1986), who appointed him Keeper of the Seals when he was a law professor and renowned lawyer, he introduced the law of October 9, 1981 which abolished the death penalty , in a France then majority in favor of this supreme punishment.
He subsequently invested until his “last breath of life” for the universal abolition of capital punishment.
It was not his only fight as Minister of Justice, since in 1982, with MP Gisèle Halimi, he introduced the law which abolished homophobic discrimination.
After his departure from the government, he chaired the Constitutional Council for nine years (1986-1995).
A socialist senator from 1995 to 2011, he also had the satisfaction of seeing the abolition of the death penalty included in the Constitution in 2007.