France’s anti-democratic streak

For the past week the airwaves in France have eulogised Robert Badinter, a name unfamiliar to many outside the Republic. He was the Justice Minister under François Mitterrand and the man who oversaw the abolition of the death penalty in 1981.

On Wednesday Emmanuel Macron presided over what was billed as a national act of remembrance. Badinter, who died aged 95 last week, will be laid to rest in the Panthéon alongside the other heroes of the Republic.

What most of the eulogies omitted was the fact that Badinter – universally respected as a man of conviction and humanity – abolished the death penalty against the wishes of the majority.

A survey in 1980 found that 61 per cent of the population were opposed to the abolition of capital punishment; although this figure dropped to 30 per cent in the 1990s, it has steadily risen this century as French society has become increasingly violent.