Nearly 80 parliamentarians ask President Macron to declare Gisele Halimi pantheons

Seventy-six MPs from the majority asked Emmanuel Macron this Friday to pantheonize Giselle Halimi. This request came on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and the day after the Assembly’s vote to constitutionalize voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG).

“In too many countries, women’s rights are crumbling more and more every day under the weight of growing conservatism and obscurantism,” wrote Renaissance MP from the Gironde Sophie Panonacle and 75 of her colleagues who signed the letter to the head of state. They ask that “Giselle Halimi can become the seventh woman in the Pantheon” and “join her wrestling sister Simone Weil”.

“Giselle Halimi was one of those to whom we owe so much. A brilliant lawyer, feminist activist and former MP, one for whom injustice was unbearable, she dedicated her life to protecting the poor, the oppressed and women,” the parliamentarians emphasize. Elected officials from the three groups of deputies that make up the presidential camp (Renaissance, Horizons, Modem) salute “his unfailing courage” and “all his humanitarian efforts.”

His position on Algiers was sometimes considered too divisive.

Lawyer, politician and writer Gisele Halimi, who died on July 28, 2020 at the age of 93, made her life a fight for women’s rights, marked by a high-profile lawsuit in 1972. She then defended at the Criminal Court of Bobigny (Seine). -Saint-Denis), in the Paris area, Marie-Claire Chevalier, a minor accused of having an abortion after being a victim of rape. She secured the release of a young woman and managed to mobilize public opinion, paving the way for the decriminalization of abortion in early 1975.

Elected as an MP in 1981, she continued to fight in the Assembly, this time for voluntary abortion (IVG) reimbursement, finally voting in 1982. She was also one of the main voices for the defense activists of the National Liberation Front (FLN) and condemned the use of torture by French soldiers in Algiers.

The pantheonization, which has been requested several times by feminist associations and political leaders, has faced resistance at the Élysée in recent years due to its stance on the war in Algeria and the protection of FLN fighters who members believe are the President’s entourage.