France pays 'solemn' tribute to former justice minister Robert Badinter
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Transcript
00:00 start then with that tribute. This afternoon President Macron has led a ceremony honoring
00:06 Robert Bathander, France's former Minister of Justice. He was one of the country's most
00:12 respected intellectuals. He died on Friday at the age of 95. Well Macron during the tribute
00:18 honored Bathander's work to end the death penalty in France saying the dead are listening.
00:27 It was not a political question. It was a question of morals.
00:32 It was a case of conscience. Robert Bathander convinced.
00:38 A majority voted for the law in its entirety. A majority made up of the left joined by members
00:47 of the opposition led by Jacques Chirac. Robert Bathander won his biggest case.
00:56 Behind every single person who was damned, condemned, forgotten,
01:02 the Justice Minister always saw human life.
01:06 Well let's go now to Place Vendome in the center of Paris where that ceremony took place today.
01:14 Our reporter Antonia Kerrigan is there. Antonia you watched this tribute unfold this afternoon.
01:22 Tell us what the mood was like and perhaps what struck you about it.
01:25 It was an extremely solemn, extremely serious occasion and you could see that the audience
01:34 were genuinely moved, genuinely sobered by the words they heard and we were also shown a show
01:41 reel, a sort of montage of photos and videos in key moments of Robert Bathander's life
01:49 at the end of which the audience applauded. One notable quote at the end of the final video showed
01:56 in this montage was from an interview in which Robert Bathander said that when he died he would
02:01 like God to tell him you did what you could, now come in and that's of course reflective of the
02:08 sense of humor that many have praised in him. Many of those we spoke to and many of those we've heard
02:14 in tributes coming in in the last few days. He's not just a great man who changed the face of
02:18 French justice but that he was also someone who was a good, decent person and who was approachable
02:24 and he was interested in the lives of individual humans. This is what was really interesting,
02:31 everyone we've spoken to, today is not just a day of celebrating a great man from history but it's
02:37 also someone for whom a huge number of people have a great deal of affection. President Macron of
02:42 course signed off saying the Pantheon awaits you which has of course not been a confirmed date for
02:50 the day that Robert Bathander could be pantheonized but it is of course there is no greater tribute
02:58 in the French Republic. Antonia Kerrigan at Place Vendôme, thank you very much indeed.