He will be the first foreign Resistance fighter to enter the Pantheon: on February 21, 80 years to the day after his death, Missak Manouchian will join Voltaire, Emile Zola, Jean Moulin, René Cassin or Simone Veil in the temple of “great men”. Shot by the German army in 1944, this survivor of the Armenian genocide, stateless, communist and member of the resistance network Francs-tireurs et partisans – Main d’oeuvre immigrée (FTP-MOI) chose “France twice, for his will as a young Armenian man in love with Baudelaire and Victor Hugo, then by his blood shed for our country”, declared the Elysée in a statement posted Sunday, June 18.
The announcement of his next entry into the Pantheon alongside his wife Mélinée – also involved in the Resistance -, unveiled on the occasion of the 83rd anniversary of the appeal of June 18, 1940 celebrated at Fort du Mont-Valérien, is full of symbols. “With him, all the foreign resistance fighters who fought for France, were combatants and hostages in the same way as the others, entered the Pantheon. It is a real recognition”, estimates the historian Denis Peschanski, specialist in history of the memory of the Second World War and member of the committee “Missak Manouchian at the Pantheon”. While 91 resistance fighters and foreign hostages shot at Mont-Valérien during the Occupation were also recognized as “dead for France” this Sunday, he hails the “correction of an injustice and an inequality which was not acceptable” , and sees in these announcements “a tribute to the France of Human Rights and Enlightenment”.
A reference widely shared by Bruno Roger-Petit, memory adviser to Emmanuel Macron, for whom Missak Manouchian’s entry into the Pantheon represents above all “a French state of mind”. “While you have permanent challenges in the public debate on what French identity is, he is proof that being French means adhering to republican values, detaching yourself from all identity assignments”, he comments to L’Express. After the pantheonization of Simone Veil in 2018, Maurice Genevoix in 2020 and Joséphine Baker in 2021, that of Missak Manouchian underlines “the universal values of the spirit of Resistance, while showing an openness to foreign countries and diversity. , at a time of withdrawal and hardening of identity in society”, summarizes the historian Jean Garrigues, president of the parliamentary and political history committee.
Because beyond the national tribute, the specialist recalls that there is always “a political intentionality” behind the pantheonizations. Over the course of the Fifth Republic, the Heads of State, the only ones willing to choose the names of the personalities who will enter the Pantheon, have thus designated great figures corresponding to their values, their political and memorial identity, even to a certain social demand. . Above all, in the panoply of presidential memorial gestures, pantheonization remains, according to former adviser to Emmanuel Macron, specialist in memorial issues Joseph Zimet, “one of the most regal, most symbolic and most imposing tools”. “Anchored in our customs and our republican traditions, it has something sacred and highly symbolic”, he believes, before comparing it to the sound of the triangle at the bottom of a symphony orchestra. “Even in the midst of a din, pantheonizations transcend tumult and noise”.
“A pool of names that come up often”
How to choose, then, the “big names” who will join their prestigious predecessors within the necropolis? Joseph Zimet, who worked for a long time alongside Emmanuel Macron on the pantheonization of the writer Maurice Genevoix in 2020, distinguishes several selection criteria. The power of social demand, first, as was the case for Simone Veil in 2018, for example. the former adviser. Family, associative or political militancy can also have their place in the decision-making of Heads of State. A committee made up of Missak Manouchian’s great-niece, several historians and political figures and led by the president of the association Unity laïque Jean-Pierre Sakoun has been campaigning for example for several years to bring the Resistance fighter into the Pantheon.
“You have a pool of names that come up often, pushed by academics, professors, intellectuals… This is the case, for example, of Marc Bloch, Pierre Mendès France, Diderot or even Charles Péguy”, says Joseph Zimet. In some cases, the family of the deceased can nevertheless refuse the proposal of a head of state, like the entourage of Albert Camus in 2009. The writer’s son was thus opposed to the decision of the president of the time Nicolas Sarkozy, who wanted to bring in the author of The Stranger at the Pantheon. According to information from Worldhe believed in particular that this gesture would be “a misinterpretation” for the life of his father and feared “a political recovery”.
According to Bruno Roger-Petit, a hundred requests, made by associations, relatives or individuals would be made each year to the Élysée, with proposals “ranging from the most legitimate to the most far-fetched”. The president’s memory adviser also takes the opportunity to recall the rule laid down de facto on the death of Victor Hugo in 1885, consisting in reserving entry to the Pantheon to personalities whose action participated in the construction of human rights from 1789. “You will therefore have personalities linked to the Enlightenment, or to later years: Zola, Jaurès, Victor Hugo… Which excludes big names like Molière, who often appear in the requests, but do not correspond to the criteria”.
“The political opportunity behind the symbolic gesture”
In other situations, pantheonization is a matter of more intimate and personal choices, like Maurice Genevoix for Emmanuel Macron on the occasion of the closing of the commemoration of the centenary of the First World War, or Jean Moulin for the General de Gaulle, in 1964. “The latter truly enters the collective memory at the time of his pantheonization, with this well-known speech by André Malraux, which remains in memory and which all the heads of state have since tried to copy” , laughs Joseph Zimet. According to him, the political opportunity behind the symbolic gesture is, finally, the last criterion to be taken into account. “The Head of State exemplifies a life, an era, a series of acts, a thought, which he considers to be consistent with the challenges linked to his mandate”, deciphers political scientist Olivier Ihl.
François Mitterrand, who holds the record for the number of pantheonisations – seven personalities entered it during his mandates – was thus the first, in 1995, to bring a woman into the necropolis, in the person of Marie Curie. “Before her, only Sophie Berthelot had been transferred there, as the wife of the scientist Marcellin Berthelot. At the time, it was a strong symbol of equality, a value that was very dear to François Mitterrand”, deciphers this professor in historical sociology at Sciences Po Grenoble. Ditto for François Hollande, who pantheonized during the same ceremony in 2015 the four Resistants Pierre Brossolette, Jean Zay, Germaine Thillon and Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz – two men and two women, all identified as leftist figures. “It was a way of claiming a certain affiliation with this particular historical sequence, while emphasizing the role of women in the Resistance”, explains Olivier Ihl.
Another mandate, another symbol: when in 2011, Nicolas Sarkozy inaugurated a plaque in honor of Aimé Césaire at the Panthéon – the author’s ashes will remain in Martinique, his native land, in accordance with his will -, the political scientist sees a way of “recognizing the place of overseas territories in the Republic”, and “the universalism of literary talent”. “Aimé Césaire expressed both the diversity of French society and the intellectual contribution of this cultural diversity. We can clearly see there that there was a political intention to return to the image of identity closure sometimes returned by Nicolas Sarkozy” , analyzes for his part Jean Garrigues.
“Incarnate national unity”
“Pantheonization is also a question of affirmation,” says historian Patrick Garcia, professor at the University of Cergy-Pontoise. When Jacques Chirac brought Alexandre Dumas into the building in November 2022, a few months after the second round of the presidential election which had pitted him against Jean-Marie Le Pen, the specialist recalled the symbolic charge of this ceremony. “By bringing a mixed-race descendant of a slave into the Pantheon, Jacques Chirac shows that diversity has nourished the national novel,” he explains. “It was a way of celebrating a form of Creole talent for writing, but also of bringing the popular novel into the Pantheon”, adds Olivier Ihl. At the time, a large crowd had moved in front of the building, in order to attend the ceremony.
In 2023, what remains of the symbolic value of these pantheonisations? While Georges Pompidou and Valéry Giscard d’Estaing never wanted to “pantheonize”, in order to stand out from the “traditions of previous Republics, then considered outdated”, Olivier Ihl believes that these ceremonies make it possible in particular to restore the presidential institution. , faced with a certain loss of legitimacy. “For Emmanuel Macron, who is in his fourth pantheonization, this ceremony makes it possible to embody national unity. It is a personalization of power, which is responsible for reconciling us with the institution”, he explains. . “What is certain is that the Pantheon has a very important value: that of sending messages to the nation”, concludes Joseph Zimet. “And if deciphered correctly, it can be very effective.”