A national tribute for Robert Badinter, architect of the abolition of the death penalty in France, is planned for Wednesday at Place Vendôme in Paris, where the Ministry of Justice is located.
The ceremony must take place from noon, said the Élysée.
This solemn meeting was decided on Friday, the day of the death of former Minister of Justice Robert Badinter, at the age of 95.
Many people have since paid tribute to him.
A collection of condolences is available to the public until Wednesday evening at the Chancellery to allow everyone to write a final message to the former lawyer.
Access to this booklet was planned until Sunday evening, but the Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, extended this possibility by two days in view of the crowds.
“Despite the rain, several thousand of you came to pay tribute to Robert Badinter,” he said on Sunday on X (formerly Twitter).
Despite the rain, several thousand of you came to pay tribute to Robert Badinter.
For all those who wish and those who unfortunately could not enter this weekend, I have decided to extend the opening of the Chancellery tomorrow and the day after tomorrow from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
https://t.co/Mx4zjTRoEj pic.twitter.com/LDFZJbxZgh
— Eric Dupond-Moretti (@E_DupondM) February 11, 2024
Place Vendôme, in front of the Chancellery, was chosen in consultation with the family.
It was there that the Minister of Justice of the socialist president François Mitterrand introduced the law of October 9, 1981 abolishing the death penalty, in a France then mainly in favor of the supreme punishment.
A speech by Emmanuel Macron
The Head of State will deliver a speech in which he will express himself on the lawyer's possible entry into the Pantheon, this republican temple which proclaims on its pediment “To great men, the grateful homeland”.
Robert Badinter was indeed “a great man”, the president agreed on Friday after the announcement of the death of the former Minister of Justice, while emphasizing that “these things take time”.
Read also Robert Badinter: LFI and the RN undesirable to the national tribute, the unity of the nation cracked
“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,” greeted Emmanuel Macron on X, a few minutes after the announcement of the death of the former president of the Constitutional Council.
This solemn meeting will take place against a backdrop of controversy.
After the philosopher Élisabeth Badinter, the widow of Robert Badinter, expressed the wish that the elected representatives of the National Rally and La France insoumise not come to the ceremony, Marine Le Pen indicated that she respected this wish, but LFI announced that the party would still be represented by its deputies Caroline Fiat and Éric Coquerel.
A minute of silence was respected by the deputies on all the benches of the National Assembly on Tuesday.
All the groups then applauded, some RN deputies abstaining.
The senators had paid tribute earlier in the afternoon to a “tireless freedom fighter”, in the words of the president of the upper house Gérard Larcher.