how Emmanuel Macron uses great figures to forge his political legacy

For the fourth time since 2017, France will have its eyes fixed on the Pantheon. Emmanuel Macron will chair, Wednesday February 21, the entry ceremony of Missak Manouchian into the monument to “great men”. The survivor of the Armenian genocide who became a resistance fighter, leader of a group of foreign fighters against the Nazi occupation, executed in February 1944, will be accompanied by his wife, also a resistance fighter, Mélinée Manouchian. “Missak Manouchian carries a part of our greatness”declared the Elysée last June, when announcing this pantheonization.

Under the Fifth Republic, the tenant of the Elysée was the only one to decide on this gesture, which was as symbolic as it was political. “Moments when the head of state embodies the whole of France, in a past-present relationship, are not frequent”underlines historian Patrick Garcia. “We flirt with eternity”, continues Bruno Roger-Petit, memory advisor to the president. Under these conditions, making Missak and Mélinée Manouchian the new residents of this republican sanctuary is anything but a trivial decision.

“In full contradiction”

After Simone Veil, Maurice Genevoix and Joséphine Baker, Emmanuel Macron chose to install at the top of Sainte-Geneviève mountain a couple of Armenian immigrants, who are fully committed against Nazism and fascism. Missak Manouchian was also a member of the Communist International from 1935, while remaining close to the French Communist Party once the Second World War began.

In the eyes of the left opposition, the choice of the President of the Republic is a “true paradox”. “We are in complete contradiction”denounces the communist deputy Pierre Dharréville. “A few weeks after the immigration law, which is an infamy, this tribute comes at a unique moment.” The Manouchian group embodies “the hope of happy days and immigrant labor”, insists Pierre Dharréville, who performed a musical poem from Aragon in tribute to the resistance fighter, tells France Bleu. Several left-wing elected officials see a gap between these values ​​and the policy pursued by the head of state. The deputy La France insoumise Sébastien Rome fears “a political display” of the president and “a way of blurring the lines in relation to the reality of one’s policy”in “contradiction with what the Manouchians defended”.

The Elysée brushes aside any desire to divert the legacy of Missak and Mélinée Manouchian for the immediate benefit of Emmanuel Macron. “The President of the Republic does not think of the current controversies when he decides on pantheonization”, evacuates Bruno Roger-Petit. The advisor recalls that this ceremony is the culmination of a long journey, started by the presidency in March 2022.

“It is a process disconnected from the ups and downs of political life. There is nothing worse than pantheonization with strategic views.”

Bruno Roger-Petit, memory advisor to Emmanuel Macron

at franceinfo

Pierre Dharréville, who calls himself “vigilant”invites the Head of State to “pay homage to everything that Manouchian represents”. But the presidency prefers to emphasize the contribution of this figure to France during the Second World War, and what makes him a Frenchman. “by his blood shed for our country”.

A new Resistance hero honored

This is where the memorial virtue of tributes to the heroes of the Resistance lies. The presidents have understood this well: of the eight pantheonizations that occurred under François Hollande and Emmanuel Macron, six are linked to France’s fight against Nazi Germany. “The Resistance appears to be the most historically available symbolic resource, the page of the national past to which we most readily refer”, analyzes Patrick Garcia, specialist in the political uses of history. Furthermore, the last eight pantheonized personalities had a role during the two world wars of the 20th century.

Officially, the pantheonization of Missak Manouchian is therefore intended to be as unifying as possible. “It’s a great moment of consensus”, insists Bruno Roger-Petit. On the PCF side, we welcome a “just memory repair”, explains Pierre Dharréville, while the communist resistance fighters were absent from the Pantheon. This is what several left-wing elected officials, such as Jean-Marc Germain and Pierre Ouzoulias, wanted to address by bringing this issue forward in the mid-2010s. To defend this request more vigorously, a committee supporting this entry into the Pantheon sees the light of day at the end of 2021.

How can we explain that this project finally came to fruition under a centrist and liberal presidency? “Emmanuel Macron is a new man”, estimates Pierre Ouzoulias. The PCF senator, a long-time supporter of the pantheonization of Missak Manouchian, considers that the head of state is free of the rivalries between communists and socialists, which may have led François Hollande to prefer the pantheonization, in 2015, of Jean Zay, Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz, Germaine Tillion and Pierre Brossolette, less politically marked figures on the far left.

“It is easier for Emmanuel Macron than for François Hollande to pay tribute to this political figure. It is a historical fact, not ideological and partisan.”

Pierre Ouzoulias, communist senator

at franceinfo

In fact, if the pantheonization ceremony is intended to be consensual, the choice of the consecrated personality is often much more divisive. Thus, part of the political class and a number of associations have called for the pantheonization of Gisèle Halimi, lawyer and figure of feminism who died in 2020. But figures from the right opposed the idea of ​​giving such an honor to the one who defended Algerian nationalists more than half a century ago. In 2021, the Elysée preferred Joséphine Baker, star of the interwar period committed against Nazism. The pantheonization file of Gisèle Halimi “is still under study”however, assumes the presidency of franceinfo.

The ashes of Rouget de Lisle soon to be transferred?

Sometimes, the family of a deceased personality can oppose a pantheonization that is desired at the highest level of the State. This was the case for Albert Camus in 2009, under Nicolas Sarkozy. At the time, the writer’s son refused the transfer of his father’s ashes for fear of “recovery” policy, according to The world. Even the case of Missak Manouchian does not win the support of the entire political world, since Eric Zemmour (Reconquête) sees in this entry into the Pantheon a “handling” suggesting that “only foreigners fought for France”. For its part, the National Rally is very discreet about this pantheonization. Contacted by franceinfo, the party did not communicate on this subject.

A sign that the practice still has strong political importance, the Elysée still receives so many requests to pantheonize figures in French history. Around a hundred each year, of all kinds, according to Bruno Roger-Petit. Some do not meet the criteria to be respected, like Molière, a genius well before 1789 – those pantheonized must be figures after the French Revolution. It is then that the filter intervenes to sort those who deserve elevation to the Republican firmament from “great men” and great women. Recently, in a column published by The echoes, a collective defended the pantheonization of the industrialist André Citroën. For the moment, the file has not progressed in high places.

Emmanuel Macron’s memory advisor prefers to put forward the name of Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, the author of the words of The Marseillaisewhose ashes, today at the Invalides, have been waiting to be transferred to the Pantheon since 1915. Will he be the next to benefit from the presidential green light? Or will the President of the Republic first enter into this “secular temple”in the words of the Elysée, of Robert Badinter, architect of the abolition of the death penalty in France? “There will be a ceremony in due course. Robert Badinter’s family has given their consent for such a ceremony to take place.”, we explain in the entourage of the Head of State. Until his scheduled departure from the Elysée in the spring of 2027, Emmanuel Macron in any case has complete freedom to choose those to whom the homeland will now be grateful.