In the whirlwind of current events, there are few men or women who are statuary during their lifetime.
Robert Badinter was one of them.
Of course, he had a date with history.
The opportunity is not given to everyone.
He knew how to grasp it, thanks to François Mitterrand.
On September 17, 1981, at a time when the vast majority of the people were demanding the death of the assassin as an example - when they were not crying for revenge -, he obtained the abolition of capital punishment.
In his deep voice, from the tribune of the Palais Bourbon, the lawyer newly appointed Keeper of the Seals had pleaded the cause which he defended with the eloquence of the heart.
The image of a man of conviction –
“absolute”
, he said – then took root in consciousness.
Even among the most resistant to the disappearance of the scaffold.
The episode will not make him popular when crime was already increasing.
But the passionate, inhabited speaker will make an impression.
This determined character, Robert Badinter…
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