Death of Jacques Delors: with a 22nd national tribute, Emmanuel Macron beats François Hollande's record

“Statesman with a French destiny. Inexhaustible craftsman of our Europe. Fighter for human justice.” It is in these laudatory terms that Emmanuel Macron reacted to the disappearance of Jacques Delors on December 27. This Friday, January 5, 2024, the Head of State will deliver a more complete panegyric in memory of the former President of the European Commission, during the national tribute which will be paid to him at Les Invalides. The exercise is dear to him: since the start of his first term, the President of the Republic will have delivered no less than 22 national tributes. No President of the Republic has done as much.

What does this very codified ceremonial consist of? “The national tribute is an official ceremony generally intended for soldiers who died for France, even if certain civilian personalities with exceptional destinies were thus honored after their death,” specifies the government website. This ceremony was also organized for the victims of terrorist attacks. Official distinction of the French Republic, it can only be decided by the head of state himself. He delivers a funeral eulogy, traditionally in the main courtyard of Les Invalides, a symbolic place if ever there was one for the military imagination.

These tributes are rather rare under Jacques Chirac, who is however the first to honor a civilian personality, with the tribute to Commander Cousteau in June 1997, then a statesman, in the person of Jacques Chaban-Delmas. Nicolas Sarkozy, too, will little honor the “non-military”, apart from Philippe Séguin (January 2010) and the director and novelist Pierre Schoendoerffer. However, he also innovates, since Schoendoerffer, notably known for his novels on Indochina which he himself adapted for the cinema (Le Crabe-Tambour, La 317ème section...), is the first artist to receive this distinction.

It was under François Hollande that this republican ritual became commonplace. Where his predecessors had contented themselves with a few rare departures from tradition, the socialist president generalized tributes to civilians. Of the 21 national tributes he delivers, only five concern soldiers who died for France. He thus salutes the memory of several statesmen, such as Pierre Mauroy (June 2013) or Michel Rocard (July 2016), but also of great intellectual figures such as the historians Jean-Louis Crémieux-Brilhac (April 2015) and Alain Decaux ( April 2016), without forgetting personalities with exceptional destinies, such as the writer and resistance fighter Stéphane Hessel (March 2013). Hollande's five-year term is also marked by the increase in terrorist attacks, which often give rise to national tributes. This was particularly the case for the victims of November 13, 2015, those of the Nice attack (June 2016), or the couple of police officers murdered at their home in Magnanville.

This sort of memorial frenzy continued under Emmanuel Macron, who delivered his 22nd national tribute speech for Jacques Delors on January 5. By overtaking François Hollande, who certainly did not benefit from a second term, he becomes the President of the Republic having presided over the greatest number of these ceremonies. Only four of them honored soldiers who died for France (five including the heroic gendarmerie officer, Arnaud Beltrame). Even if no date has yet been communicated, the Élysée has already announced that a 23rd national tribute will be organized for the French victims of the Hamas attacks on October 7.

Also read “Thank you Madam! Farewell Madame!”: last tribute to Hélène Carrère d’Encausse at Les Invalides

Significantly, Emmanuel Macron seems to want to make a point of honoring literary personalities, with the writer Jean d'Ormesson (December 2017) or the actor Michel Bouquet (April 2022), as well as iconic artists for the French, like the singer Charles Aznavour (October 2018) or the actor Jean-Paul Belmondo (September 2019). Unless by chance a large number of eminent French personalities died under his mandate.

Still, on these occasions, the Élysée has sometimes innovated in a very strict ceremonial, with for example the music from the film Le Professionnel played by the Republican Guard for Bébel, or the placing of a pencil on the coffin of Jean d'Ormesson. Above all, Emmanuel Macron has sometimes broken with the sacrosanct courtyard of honor of the Invalides. It was in another courtyard of honor, that of the Sorbonne, that the tribute to Samuel Paty took place (October 2020). For the painter Pierre Soulages (November 2022), it was also the courtyard of the Louvre.