Rare are the occasions for such unanimity in a deeply divided French left.
Robert Badinter, who was François Mitterrand's Minister of Justice, then socialist senator for more than 15 years, will have achieved this feat on the day of his death, this Friday.
The proof, beyond any doubt, that he was the
“great man”
described by political figures of the left in the wake of his death.
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The leader of the radical left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, recalled in a tweet the years he shared with him in the Senate.
“I admired Robert Badinter so much
,” he declared on X (ex-Twitter) Friday morning.
“I have never encountered a being of this nature.
He was simply luminous
,” said the boss of La France insoumise.
Without omitting the
“disagreements”
that his two former figures from the Socialist Party (PS), from opposing currents, may have had, the rebellious tribune hailed
“a speaker who brought his words to life like poetry”.
“He reasoned while speaking and his strength of conviction was unparalleled
,” added Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
“We owe him so much”
The other left-wing party leaders regretted
“the architect of the abolition of the death penalty in France”
.
Like the ecologist Marine Tondelier who praised
“a free man and a tenacious spirit who will be missed by our country”
, seeing in Robert Badinter
“a great thinker of freedoms”
and a
“convinced European”
.
The first secretary of the PS, the political family of the Mitterrandist, estimated for his part that Robert Badinter was
“more than the abolitionist who put an end to the death penalty”
.
“He embodied the very idea of justice.
His moral righteousness and determination gave all its strength to the humanist ideal
,” Olivier Faure wrote on X, confident that the lawyer was
“the cause of (his) commitment
. ”
The communist Fabien Roussel sees in Robert Badinter an
“unsinkable rock serving the defense of the values of our Republic”
.
Also recalling his
“fight”
against capital punishment, the elected official from the North declared that
“our country is losing one of its great men”
.
The socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, published a long press release in which she salutes
“the memory of this tireless fighter for public freedoms, all freedoms and human rights”
.
“We owe him so much
,” she greeted, before announcing that the city
“will pay tribute to this great conscience,”
without providing further details at this stage.