Robert Badinter could well join Pierre and Marie Curie, Victor Hugo or even Joséphine Baker.
As he had outlined the possibility, Emmanuel Macron said he was in favor this Wednesday of the entry of the former Minister of Justice into the Pantheon, on the occasion of the tribute paid to the former socialist Minister of Justice who led to the abolition of the death penalty in France in 1981.
“Your name must be inscribed alongside those who have done so much for human progress and for France and await you at the Pantheon,” declared the president at the conclusion of his tribute paid from Place Vendôme, headquarters of the Ministry of Defense. Justice.
Read also Robert Badinter: LFI and the RN undesirable to the national tribute, the unity of the nation cracked
“You are leaving us at a time when your old adversaries, forgetfulness and hatred, seem to be advancing again,” added the President of the Republic, making “an oath to be faithful to your teaching.”
“You will be able to listen to our voices cover those of the anti-Semites, the Holocaust deniers, as your voice covered theirs (…) You will be able to listen to hearings, pleadings, readings of judgments, a vibrant chorus of the rule of law, so often called into question. cause when you leave,” he proclaimed.
The Head of State praised Robert Badinter as “a force that lives and snatches life from the hands of death” by retracing his journey as a “fighter against the death penalty”, after his failure in 1972 to save his client, Roger Bontems, “guilty who had not killed”.
“The fight against death became his reason for being (…) A simple idea henceforth governed the life of Robert Badinter: in order not to lose faith in man, we must not kill men, even if they are the worst culprits “, he summarized.
The president recalled “his unforgettable plea against a capital punishment, by his words, pulverized, executed” on September 17, 1981 from the podium of the National Assembly.
“For five years he was the most hated minister in France, the target of a hatred whose echo still resonates in this Place Vendôme,” he underlined.