There are numerous reactions following the death of Robert Badinter. Emmanuel Macron hailed Robert Badinter, who died at the age of 95 on the night of Thursday to Friday, “the man for the abolition of the death penalty” and “a figure of the century, a republican conscience, the French spirit” . “He never stopped pleading for the Enlightenment,” added the President of the Republic on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
“He will have devoted every second of his life to fighting for what was just, to fighting for fundamental freedoms. The abolition of the death penalty will forever be his legacy for France,” reacted the Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, also on X.
“Immense lawyer, visionary and courageous Keeper of the Seals, Robert Badinter embodied our Republic and its values. Deeply in love with justice, architect of abolition, man of law and passion, he leaves a void worthy of his legacy: immeasurable “, for his part estimated on the social network the Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti.
“One righteous among the righteous”
For his part, the leader of La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, praised this Friday on X the “unparalleled strength of conviction” of the former president of the Constitutional Council.
“While sitting alongside him in the Senate, I admired Robert Badinter so much! He was an orator who brought his words to life like poetry. He reasoned while speaking and his strength of conviction was unparalleled. No matter the disagreements. I have never encountered another being of this nature. He was simply luminous,” reacted Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
“Robert Badinter. What is invaluable about justice. What is admirable about the Republic. What is irreplaceable about humanism,” wrote former socialist Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on X.
Speaking to AFP, the President of the Constitutional Council Laurent Fabius, for his part, salutes “a righteous man among the righteous” who has “in all the functions he has exercised, in all the causes he has pleaded, made progress law and humanism on a national and international level.
Minister of Justice under socialist president François Mitterrand (1981-1986), Robert Badinter introduced the law of October 9, 1981 which abolished the death penalty, in a France then majority in favor of this supreme punishment. He subsequently invested, until his “last breath of life”, for the universal abolition of capital punishment.