In the midst of a social movement against the pension reform, several personalities refuse to join in the tribute paid by the Elysée to the feminist lawyer. Starting with one of his sons, Serge Halimi.
The case takes a very political turn. Emmanuel Macron chairs a national tribute to lawyer and feminist activist Gisèle Halimi, Wednesday March 8, on the occasion of International Women’s Rights Day. But the ceremony is not to everyone’s taste. Serge Halimi, one of the lawyer’s sons, and several feminist associations have already announced their intention not to participate. “The decision of the Elysée comes after more than two years of procrastination”notably justifies Serge Halimi.
Since the disappearance of the feminist activist on July 28, 2020 at the age of 93, the Presidency of the Republic has struggled to find the right date and the appropriate place to pay tribute to her. In 2020, a trip by the Head of State to Lebanon, shortly after the explosion in the port of Beirut, forced the Elysée to postpone the event. Then a second date had been mentioned at the beginning of the year 2022, but the tribute had ultimately not taken place.
What will the tribute organized by the Elysée look like?
Emmanuel Macron must preside over a national tribute to Gisèle Halimi, Wednesday from 2 p.m., at the Paris courthouse. Initially, the President of the Republic had mentioned in a speech on March 4, 2020 “the courtyard of the Invalides”, but the military character of the place did not suit several members of the family. During a ceremony of about two hours, the Head of State must deliver a speech to honor the memory of the lawyer, “to discuss his career and his fights, and to recall what France owes him”details a presidential adviser to franceinfo.
According to this adviser, Emmanuel Macron will discuss especially his fights “against colonization and the war in Algeria”, “Against the death penalty”, For “the legalization of abortion” or “for the decriminalization of homosexuality”. Jean-Yves Halimi, eldest son of Gisèle Halimi, must also speak at the opening of the ceremony. Questioned by AFP, the latter said to himself “we couldn’t be more satisfied” that a national tribute be paid to his mother.
Why is this tribute criticized (and partly boycotted)?
However, the choice of the Elysée is not unanimous. The ceremony will notably be boycotted by Serge Halimi, the lawyer’s second son. “The country is mobilized against an extremely unfair pension reform, of which the women who occupy the most difficult jobs will be the first victims. My mother would have defended their cause and demonstrated alongside them”he explained.
The son of the feminist activist did not appreciate the way of doing the presidency of the Republic either. According to our information, an Elysée adviser contacted the journalist from Diplomatic world by SMS on March 1 to announce the holding of this tribute a week later. However, the executive ensures that the date was set well before the announcement of a day of mobilization against the pension reform.
The position of Serge Halimi joins that of the association Choosing the cause of women, founded by Gisèle Halimi and Simone de Beauvoir in 1971. “The members of the office said unanimously that Gisèle Halimi would never have accepted such a thing”explains to franceinfo Violaine Lucas, the president of the association. “The President of the Republic is implementing a pension reform that will penalize women, so we cannot join in this tribute and that shocks us.”
“How could they have imagined that we were going to participate in this political instrumentalization?”
Violaine Lucas, president of Choosing the cause of womenat franceinfo
On the method, Violaine Lucas also attacks the Elysée. “We received a simple email on March 2 in the morning on the address of the association. They asked me for my contact details so that they could send me an invitation. We were notified six days before, when we already have an event at European Parliament scheduled for March 8″she gets annoyed.
According to the association, Anne Tonglet, one of the two women defended by Gisèle Halimi in 1978 during the emblematic Aix-en-Provence trial which paved the way for the legalization of abortion in France, does not will not pay tribute either. The latter ensured “to be disappointed with so much contempt”. Finally, the president of the Women’s Foundation, Anne-Cécile Mailfert, will not go to the tribute to the courthouse either. “My place is in the street, and that’s how we will pay him the most beautiful tribute”explained the activist on franceinfo.
How does the Elysée respond to these criticisms?
The Elysée rejects the “trial” made by Serge Halimi and defends the choice of the date despite the political context. March 8, International Women’s Day, “echoes the fights led by Gisèle Halimi”explains an adviser to the Elysée, refusing to mix the news of the pension reform and the figure of the feminist lawyer. “A national tribute is always a time of gathering, of communion, of overcoming all political divisions”regrets this same adviser.
“Those who do not want to associate are in a political fight that they lead in their conscience.”
An adviser to the Elyséeat franceinfo
On the method, the Elysée justifies itself by explaining that “Serge Halimi has always been disinterested in this tribute”. The left-wing activist had explained in November in the newspaper The world that his mother’s memory could “perfectly dispense with a speech of homage by Emmanuel Macron”.
Supporters of this March 8 tribute are not only found at the Elysée Palace. The journalist Thomas Legrand does not hesitate to summon the memory of his friend, the journalist Emmanuel Faux, third son of Gisèle Halimi, who disappeared last summer. “He was one of the inspirations of this tribute to this symbolic date and to the Paris courthouse, a place that Gisèle Halimi frequented so much”explains Thomas Legrand in his editorial published on Tuesday in Release. “The tribute of the Republic (more than that of the president) to the woman who was right, in a period when the reactionary and illiberal wind is blowing over the world and France, will not be useless to the ears who will hear it. In the meantime, maybe one day, the Pantheon.”
Where is the idea of an entry to the Pantheon?
Behind the controversy linked to the national tribute also hovers the disappointment of relatives and feminist activists who demand the entry of Gisèle Halimi into the Pantheon. This pantheonization was also recommended by the historian Benjamin Stora to Emmanuel Macron, among twenty recommendations “to reconcile memories” between France and Algeria. A petition launched in October 2020 also garnered more than 35,000 signatures.
Since then, Emmanuel Macron seems to be playing the watch. “We feel an embarrassment” on the side of the Elysée, “and we can’t help but think ‘Yes to Baker, no to Halimi'”had entrusted to Public Senate the socialist senator Rachid Temal, at the time of the announcement of the pantheonization of Joséphine Baker.
The process of entry of Gisèle Halimi to the Pantheon “is still under study and will be carried through to completion”assures the Elysée to franceinfo. “An entry into the Pantheon is always a long process, with the exception of Victor Hugo and Simone Veil. And it should not be the revenge of one part of the country against another.”