The lesson of Robert Badinter


Touched by the initiative of a class of CM1-CM2 from Schiltigheim, the former Keeper of the Seals of François Mitterrand signs the foreword to this republican primer.

Flexible approach, impeccable dress, Robert Badinter joins the room where the children of the school of Schiltigheim wait for him. At the time of the beheading of history professor Samuel Paty, the former Minister of Justice appeared in a tribute video, speaking of secularism and the Republic. For these Alsatian students, Badinter is much more than a minister. Abolition of the death penalty, decriminalization of homosexual relations, presidency of the Constitutional Council, close to Mitterrand, he is a figure of the Fifth Republic. Passionate about man and their work with their teacher, Peggy Kilhoffer, the schoolchildren then produced an alphabet book* on the words of the Republic.

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Touched by the project, Robert Badinter made an appointment with the children in the Senate: “I hope that the alphabet book will be very widespread everywhere, in all schools”, he confided to them. Gérard Larcher, President of the Senate, also received the schoolchildren and warmly congratulated them. They then had the opportunity to ask questions to Robert Badinter. When did he find out he was going to be a minister? “My son taught me that. The truth is that I was not surprised.

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The health of democracy? “Less in danger than they say, but more than I would like.” Abstention in elections? “It was so difficult to win the right to vote in our country. To neglect it, to be indifferent, is to place oneself outside the Republic. Nothing is more damaging than such an attitude.” War in Ukraine? “I never thought we would see a war in Eastern Europe again. It is a great misfortune that the war which is going on in our country.” His take on Putin? “I pity the people of Ukraine in what is caused by one man’s pride.”

Robert Badinter also recalled his old struggles: “If there is no respect for secularism, there is no possibility of fraternity or freedom.” The children left the room with the former minister and the president of the Senate to continue the visit to the Luxembourg Palace and then to the Élysée. “We started working on these subjects with the death of Samuel Paty. It was a real groundwork for six months,” explains the teacher. And a lifelong memory for these children who met a minister already belonging to the history of the Fifth Republic.

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* “Republican Primer”, by Peggy Kilhoffer and the CM1-CM2 class of the Jean-Mermoz school, ed. Fayard.



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