France paid tribute to Robert Badenter

French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to Robert Badenter, who, as Minister of Justice, abolished the death penalty, AFP reported.
The name of Robert Badenter, who has died aged 95, "must be inscribed" in the Pantheon, "alongside those who have done so much for human progress and for France", Macron announced
He should be buried in the French Panthéon in Paris, where national heroes rest, he added.
The Pantheon is reserved for the most exceptional personalities from the world of politics, culture and science. Only the president can allow a person to enter the former church
"You are leaving us at a time when your old adversaries - oblivion and hatred - seem to be advancing again," the president said from the Place Vendôme, the seat of the Ministry of Justice.
He hailed Robert Badenter, who has led a relentless campaign to abolish the death penalty worldwide, as "a force that lives and wrests life from the hands of death."
A giant portrait of the former minister was placed in front of the ministry building.
Robert Badenter, a minister under President François Mitterrand, introduced the law to abolish the death penalty on October 9, 1981, shortly after Mitterrand's election in France, where the majority supported the death penalty.
He subsequently campaigned for the universal abolition of the death penalty, a struggle which Emmanuel Macron now says he wants to perpetuate by organizing the next world congress for the cause in France in 2026.
Politicians paid him an almost unanimous tribute, marked by a moment of silence in the Senate and then the National Assembly.
But the solemn assembly took place amid controversy.
Philosopher Elisabeth Badenter, his widow, has expressed a wish that elected representatives of the far-right National Assembly (RN) and the radical left party "Disobedient France" (LFI) not attend the ceremony.
"We won't attend, the family didn't want that," was the immediate response of Marine Le Pen, who, like other far-right leaders, had minimized the service to pay tribute to the figure, long criticized for canceling the death punishment.
LFI's reaction was the opposite. "A national honor is a national honor. We are invited to attend and will be represented," said a party representative. /BGNES