“The nation has certainly lost a great man, a very great lawyer,” Emmanuel Macron declared this Friday, February 9, in reaction to the death of Robert Badinter. The former Minister of Justice, architect of the abolition of the death penalty, died on the night of February 8 to 9, at the age of 95.
On the sidelines of a trip to Bordeaux, the President of the Republic specified that a “national tribute” would be paid to Robert Badinter. Could the former president of the Constitutional Council, who was also the lawyer for L’Express from 1953 to 1979, join the Pantheon? “I will have the opportunity to speak during the national tribute that we are organizing in conjunction with the family,” replied Emmanuel Macron.
There were numerous political reactions following the announcement of this death. The President of the Republic praised “a figure of the century, a republican conscience, the French spirit”, while the current president of the Constitutional Council, Laurent Fabius, described Robert Badinter as “the righteous among the righteous”.