France pays tribute to Badinter, minister who won fight to end death penalty
French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday led a national tribute to former justice minister Robert Badinter, who played a pivotal role in abolishing the death penalty. Badinter is to be laid to rest in the Panthéon in Paris.
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Macron delivered Badinter's funeral eulogy at Place Vendôme – home of the Justice Ministry – six days after his death at the age of 95.
Beethoven's Symphony No 7 in A major Opus 92 was performed by Leonard Bernstein as the background to a film screening of photographs retracing Badinter's life.
Badinter's family had said the far-right National Rally (RN) and the far-left France Unbowed (LFI) parties were not welcome at the tribute.
Badinter was often the target of insults by the far right and the Le Pen family, who campaigned for the reinstatement of the death penalty until 2017.
While Marine Le Pen's RN agreed not to attend, LFI sent two of its MPs. "A national tribute that excludes a part of France is no longer a national tribute. The republic is indivisible," LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon posted on X.
Elisabeth Badinter, a philosopher and Badinter's wife of 57 years, was accompanied by their children, Judith, Simon and Benjamin. They sat a few rows from the LFI lawmakers.
🔴🇫🇷⚖️ The tribute to former French justice minister Robert #Badinter took place at Place Vendôme in Paris on Wednesday.
— FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) February 14, 2024
Watch as the #tribute to the man who abolished the #deathpenalty in #France began⤵️ pic.twitter.com/tYkkTyerXu
Panthéon entry
One of the country's most influential figures, Badinter served as president of the Constitutional Council and as a member of the French Senate from 1995 to 2011.
Macron said he would be laid to rest in the Panthéon, which houses the remains of some of the country's most celebrated men and women.
“You are leaving us at a time when your old adversaries, forgetfulness and hatred, seem to be advancing again,” Macron added.
The son of a Jewish fur trader who was deported to a Nazi death camp during World War II, Badinter had built a reputation as a lawyer for defending – often successfully – notorious cases that his peers wouldn't dare touch.
Retracing his journey fighting the death penalty, Macron praised Badinter as a force that "lives and snatches life from the hands of death”.
'Lonely fight'
A lawyer, politician and author, Badinter saved many lives by dedicating his own to eliminating capital punishment, which was banned in France in 1981.
At that time most French people still supported the practice.
He later said he'd "never felt so lonely" in fighting capital punishment, which in France was carried out by beheading with the guillotine, a practice dating back to the French Revolution.
During his five years as minister Badinter also scrapped a law discriminating against gays on the age of sexual consent and worked to improve conditions in French prisons.
'Fitting tribute'
Former justice minister Élisabeth Guigou told TV channel BFM the homage was a fitting tribute to Badinter, who had served as an inspiration.
“He always stayed true to his convictions. He was not content with repealing the death penalty just in France. He campaigned for universal repeal, even in the most repressive dictatorships,” she said.
Meanwhile National Assembly President Yaël Braun-Pivet said others could continue his legacy by carrying on fighting for the causes that Badinter believed in.
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