Death of Robert Badinter: ‘your name must be inscribed in the Pantheon’ asks Emmanuel Macron

“I have the honor to request, on behalf of the Government of the Republic, the abolition of the death penalty in France”: the first sentence of Robert Badinter’s speech from the podium of the National Assembly on September 17, 1981 has remained in history. The entry of his coffin into the square, from the ministry, like the retransmission of the images with this famous phrase, were applauded by the crowd of several hundred people who came to attend this ceremony open to the public. “Your name must be inscribed alongside those who have done so much for human progress and for France and await you, at the Pantheon.”launched the Head of State in the presence of the philosopher Elisabeth Badinter, widow of the man who was, in the words of the president, “the everlasting advocate of this cause, abolition.”