EDITORIAL. Pantheonization, a political weapon for Emmanuel Macron

The Head of State will chair the pantheonization ceremony of Missak Manouchian on Wednesday evening. It is the nation’s supreme tribute, but it is also a very political ritual.

Choosing Missak Manouchian is already a political act: he is the first foreign resistance fighter and the first communist resistance fighter to enter the Pantheon on Wednesday February 21. This pantheonization is therefore doubly symbolic. It is the reparation of an injustice for the communist resistance which, despite its role, had not yet had the honors of the Pantheon. And it is a president, who seeks to convince that political overcoming still makes sense, who made this decision.

This day is also a turning point for foreign resistance, “because your names are difficult to pronounce”, said Aragon in his poem in tribute to these resistant immigrants. The message that the Élysée wants to send is “that being French is a state of mind, a preference”. The Élysée which wants to make this pantheonization a message against “drivers of identity”, which means the National Rally and Éric Zemmour… It must be emphasized that this did not go without saying.

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Two months ago, Emmanuel Macron did everything to pass an immigration law enshrining national preference, with the votes of Marine Le Pen’s party. There was no question of “preference” to be French, but rather a decline in the rights of foreigners. A few days ago, it was Gérald Darmanin who proposed the end of land rights in Mayotte. Today, Emmanuel Macron, who is not short of a contradiction, is sending the opposite message.

And it’s very calculated, it’s about correcting the situation with regard to the left and recreating the divide between him and Marine Le Pen, after having invited themselves into his garden. The string is a little big when Emmanuel Macron goes so far as to criticize his rival in an interview with the communist newspaper Humanitya first for a president in office under the Fifth Republic.

A campaign argument

Pantheonization is a political weapon for the head of state. She has become, since 1958, a prerogative of the president. It’s a bit the prince’s doing, no text specifies the entry criteria. Ultimately, pantheonization is a mirror held up to those who make the decision to pantheonize. Before Missak Manouchian, with the resistance fighter Joséphine Baker, The first black personality to join the Pantheon in 2021, the head of state wanted to become the champion of a France that is mixed and united across divisions. He was already positioning himself as a progressive leader against Marine Le Pen, a little over a year before the presidential election. Less than four months before the European elections, this pantheonization of Missak Manouchhian looks like a campaign argument.