Initially excluded from the Pantheonization of Missak Manouchian, Léon Landini was finally invited by the Elysée, only 24 hours before the ceremony.
At 98 years old, Léon Landini is a figure of the French resistance. Last survivor of the organization FTP-MOI (Francs-tireurs et partisans – Immigrant workforce) which notably fought against the Nazi occupier and the Vichy regime, he is also the last living comrade of Missak Manouchian who will enter the Pantheon this Wednesday, February 21, 2024. With this Pantheonization, the entire “Manouchian Group” is honored more than eight decades after the execution of the man and 22 of his comrades by Nazi troops on Mont-Valérien. However, until Tuesday February 20, Léon Landini was not invited to the ceremony by the Elysée.
“They didn’t need me, I was humiliated”
In video published on February 17, he returned to the reasons for his ouster from the Pantheonization of Missak Manouchian, despite repeated requests from him afterwards from the Elysée Palace. “We will come back to you if your request is accepted,” he was reportedly told, after he learned of the existence of a ceremony through the press. “They made it clear to me from the start that they didn’t need me. I was humiliated. In a letter I sent, in the last line, I wrote ‘my comrades who were shot and at the moment of being shot, still had the courage to face their executioners by shouting to them long live France‘Long live freedom, long live the Communist Party’, very likely, that’s what disturbed me and why I was refused attendance at this ceremony.”
“If they refuse me the flag, I’m leaving”
Since then, the situation seems to have softened slightly between the President of the Republic and Léon Landini. Very lightly, because the latter was finally invited to the Pantheonization of Missak Manouchian. But not completely, because the 98-year-old resistance fighter remains quite annoyed after the lack of consideration shown by the Elysée. “It’s a bit cavalier this way of doing things. And to warn, 24 hours in advance, a 98-year-old man, ‘tomorrow evening you have to be at 6 p.m. at such and such a place.” I was invited the day before to ward off a blow. By saying ‘that’s it, he’s going to shut up’, and no, I’m not shutting up” he declared at blast. In fact, he would have finally been invited the day before the ceremony.
“I will still be present. Reluctantly for those who invited me, but proud to be able to say ‘I am present at the moment when we pay tribute, for the first time in 80 years to an FTP-ME'”. However, Léon Landini conditions his presence on a single detail, and not the least: being accompanied by a flag that is more than symbolic for him. “I have the flag of Carmagnole, of the FTP-MOI, the only flag that exists in France of the FTP-MOI, it is I who will bring it. So if they refuse me the flag, I will turn around, I’m leaving. Manouchian would have told me ‘don’t come home without your flag'”.
“All you have to do is look for RNs if there were any in the resistance”
This week, Marine Le Pen confirmed through her entourage that she will be present at the ceremony “despite the outrageous remarks of the President of the Republic”. Information confirmed by the president of the committee for entry into the Resistance Pantheon, Jean-Pierre Sakoun. This news is “not the greatest of our pleasures” he conceded to theAFP while saying “respect[er] institutions”. And the presence of the president of the National Rally deputies in the National Assembly is not at all to Léon Landini’s taste, “they have nothing to do there” he said, still at Blast.
“You just have to look for RNs if there were any in the resistance. I fought them during the war. My comrades died fighting their grandparents. So it’s a shame “It is wanting to harm the French resistance” to authorize their presence at the Pantheonization of Missak Manouchian, he deplored. A ceremony which will begin at 6:15 p.m. this Wednesday.The Manouchian coffins will leave rue Soufflot at 6:30 p.m. and then go up rue du Panthéon. The coffins will be placed in the nave of the Pantheon where Emmanuel Macron must give a speech. The ceremony is expected to end around 8 p.m.