After the pantheonization of Simone Veil, in 2018, that of the writer and former Poilu Maurice Genevoix in November 2020 and that of Joséphine Baker, in 2021, Emmanuel Macron will preside over that of the resistance fighter of Armenian origin Missak Manouchian on Wednesday.
Three personalities and with them, three parts of French history put in the spotlight.
The common thread for the president is to choose
“great figures who are heirs of the Age of Enlightenment,”
explains those around him.
For Manouchian, who never obtained French nationality despite two requests, this will be a recognition
“of those who were preferably French, and died in the name of the values of France”,
he continues the Élysée, adding that the ceremony will also be a tribute to communist and foreign resistance.
The resistance fighter of Armenian origin will enter the necropolis of the Great Men, accompanied by his wife Mélinée.
Both are currently buried in the Ivry Sur Seine cemetery (94) and their bodies will be exhumed so that they can be held in vigil, from Tuesday, at Mont Valérien.
On the very place where Manouchian and his comrades were shot by the Germans on February 21, 1944, a time of popular tribute will be organized.
“This will be a moment of contemplation allowing everyone to show their respect,”
further specifies the presidency of the republic.
The vigil will be followed the next day by a more official ceremony, in the presence of the family and 1,200 guests, including the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, and 600 schoolchildren.
The public will be able to watch from rue Soufflot the lifting of the bodies, carried by soldiers of the Foreign Legion.
In front of the monument, a scenography will highlight Manouchian's 22 comrades, whose names will also symbolically enter the Pantheon.
Artistic times and readings will punctuate this solemn time.
Missak and Mélinée should join vault XIII, opposite the tomb of Joséphine Baker and near that of Maurice Genevoix.
The commemorative plaque listing the names of the 22 comrades will be placed in the same vault.
Along with 81 other personalities, several other French figures of the Resistance, including Jean Moulin, Pierre Brossolette, Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz, Germaine Tillion and Jean Zay are already resting in the Pantheon.
Imposing – 110 m long and 84 m wide – the monument includes the old Sainte-Geneviève church and a crypt that can accommodate up to 300 coffins.
Support committees campaign with the president - the ultimate decision-maker for pantheonizations - for the entry of other personalities, including Molière, the lawyer Gisèle Halimi or the resistance fighter and curator of the Jeu de Paume Rose Valland.
Emmanuel Macron has already announced that the family of former Minister of Justice Robert Badinter would not object to
“his name”
entering the Pantheon.
The details should still be
“specified”
with her, according to the Élysée, and in particular the question of whether the body will rest in the crypt or if the entry will be symbolic.
In 2015, the De Gaulle family wanted Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz to remain in the Bossey cemetery, in Haute Savoie.