Arthur de Laborde / Photo credits: Amaury Cornu / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP 09:01, February 21, 2024, modified at 09:01, February 21, 2024
The poet and communist resistance fighter Missak Manouchian enters the Pantheon this Wednesday, alongside his wife Mélinée Manouchian. A precise ceremony, chaired by the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron from 6:30 p.m.
80 years to the day after his execution at Mont Valérien, on February 21, 1944, the communist resistance fighter Missak Manouchian will enter the Pantheon, accompanied by his wife Mélinée Manouchian, during a precise ceremony chaired this evening by Emmanuel Macron.
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A speech to mark “the ultimate recognition of the Republic to communist and foreign resistance”
Covered with a French flag and carried by soldiers of the Foreign Legion, Missak Manouchian's coffin will walk up rue Soufflot to arrive at the foot of the pantheon at 6:30 p.m. His letter to his wife Mélinée, written a few hours before he was shot by the Nazis in 1944, will be read by Patrick Bruel.
After a sound and light show, the coffin will pass through the doors of the mausoleum. Emmanuel Macron will then give a speech to mark "the ultimate recognition of the Republic to communist and foreign resistance", underlines the Élysée. The opportunity to recall that being French does not depend "on origin, religion, first name, but on will [and] "that France is universalism, openness and welcome", insists an advisor to the President.
At the end of the ceremony, the body of Missak Manouchian will rest in vault 13, alongside Maurice Genevoix and Josephine Baker.