Europe 1 / Photo credits: LIONEL BONAVENTURE / AFP
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12:20 p.m., February 9, 2024
Robert Badinter, former Minister of Justice and architect of the abolition of the death penalty, died during the night from Thursday to Friday at the age of 95. In 2021, during the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the abolition of the death penalty in France, the politician was the exceptional guest of Jean-Pierre Elkabbach on Europe 1. Rediscover this extract.
Robert Badinter, former Minister of Justice, died on the night of Thursday to Friday February 9 at the age of 95. In 2021, for the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the abolition of the death penalty, the former Minister of Justice of François Mitterrand, who was the leading figure, was the exceptional guest of Jean-Pierre Elkabbach on Europe 1. He took stock of the progress of fundamental rights in France and criticized the progression of pro-death penalty ideas in France.
“The only objective is universal abolition”
“The death penalty has always been the prerogative or expression of dictatorships,” Robert Badinter declared on Europe 1. “It is obvious that if we had a dictatorship again in France the death penalty would be reestablished at the same time “that freedom would be suppressed and human rights swept away. It is a constant in the history of the death penalty to be structurally linked to totalitarian regimes,” he explained.
The former Minister of Justice had repeated that “the only objective is the universal abolition” of the death penalty. But according to Robert Badinter, “progress in this direction is immense. When I took the podium of the National Assembly, we were the 35th state in the world [à abolir la peine de mort, NDLR]. Today [en 2021]there are 120 states out of 180 that are legally abolitionist in their law.”
Listen to the interview again here: