After the couple of Manuchian, Joséphine Baker, Maurice Gineboix and Velo’s couple, Robert Badinter will be the seventh personality to enter the pantheon on Thursday, October 9, from the arrival of the power of Emmanuel Macron. A date that was not chosen at random since it is the anniversary of the promulgation of the Death Penalty Abolition Law in 1981. Former Justice Minister of Justice of François Mitterrand, known for his fight against capital punishment, died in February 2024 at the age of 95.
• Julien Clerc will make one of his titles
The ceremony is scheduled to start on Thursday, October 9 around 7 pm and is scheduled to last an hour. The Head of State will pronounce a speech of about fifteen minutes, after welcoming Robert Badinter’s coffin under the pantheon ship.
Among the guests are singer Julien Clerc, who will act “presented” of his title “The murdered murderer” and actor Guillaume Gallienne, who will read a text message.
The ceremony will be closed by a scene, according to Elysée, which already describes it as “exceptional work.” During the event, Victor Hugo texts will be read, also committed against the death penalty, and Robert Badinter’s speech extracts will be read.
• Former guest presidents
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, as well as the president of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, and the president of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, are invited. The former presidents are also invited to the ceremony. With respect to Nicolas Sarkozy, the event takes place three days before its citation by the Office of the National Financial Prosecutor to hear the terms of his imprisonment, after his conviction.
The guests of Elisabeth Badinter, Emmanuel Macron and students educated in establishments with the name of Robert Badinter are also invited to the ceremony.
• The general public can meditate on the coffin
The public can massage on the edge of Rue Soufflot to pay tribute to the former guardian of the stamps. It will even be possible to meditate before the coffin from the previous day, on October 8 at the end of the afternoon as part of a funeral vigil in the Constitutional Council. An institution chaired by Robert Badinter between 1986 and 1995.
For the Elysée, transferring the coffin of the former Minister of Justice to the pantheon makes it possible to highlight his struggles for the abolition of the death penalty or the rule of law. He is “the one that ended the horrible use of Guillotine, a great civilizational leap,” according to the presidency. The latter specifies that “other fights” will be mentioned during the ceremony, such as “the end of exceptional courts and the decriminalization of homosexuality.”
In June 2026, the historian and resistant Marc Bloch, shot by the Nazis in 1944, made his entry into the pantheon in turn.
Source: BFM TV
