“Françoise Rudetzki was the tutelary figure for all the victims of terrorism”: Emmanuel Macron hailed, on Wednesday during a national tribute in Paris, the memory of the tireless spokesperson for the victims of the attack, who died on May 17, at the age of 73.
In a courtyard of the Invalides crushed by the sun, the president, the daughter and the brother of Françoise Rudetzki as well as two victims of attacks, in the presence of many politicians and members of the government praised an “obstinate solar”, who “made of his personal drama a collective fight”. Françoise Rudetzki had created in 1985 SOS Attentat, the first association for the defense of victims of terrorism, a date which marked the beginning of a wave of deadly attacks in Paris, linked to the conflict in the Middle East.
On December 23, 1983, Françoise Rudetzki was herself the victim of a bomb attack at the Grand Véfour restaurant. The explosion throws a metal door that crushes his legs. She then contracts HIV, following a transfusion. Despite a “life of pain”, in the words of Emmanuel Macron, “she refused defeat”. When he comes out of the coma, his first reading will be a Penal Code: the beginning of a long fight for the recognition of the rights of victims of terrorism.
Many advances thanks to his fight
At the podium, Christiane Merlino, victim of the Port-Royal metro attack in 1996, remembers the “box of chocolates” she received on her hospital bed, “with a word from SOS Attentat” . Her voice trembles when she remembers the “countless steps, mailings, folds” carried out by the association to fight against oblivion and the legal void which the victims were then facing.
A fight that has led to many advances, recalled by the President of the Republic: in 1986, it had obtained the creation of the Guarantee Fund for victims of acts of terrorism, a guarantee extended in 1990 to all victims of criminal offenses (rape, assault, robbery).
Victims also obtained the right to be a civil party in terrorism trials, and were recognized as civilian victims of war. “My mother is dead but the advances she has made must not die with her,” said her daughter, Déborah Rudetzki, with force. “We will be the guardian of this building of brotherhood, I am committed to it,” replied the President of the Republic.
The one who knocked on the door of many tenants of the Élysée “did not accept being told no”, recalled Emmanuel Macron who granted his request for the creation of a memorial museum for the victims of terrorism. Its opening is scheduled for 2027. The Head of State then laid a wreath at the foot of the ballot box. “Fugacious moments of honor to celebrate the fight of a lifetime”, underlined Caroline Langlade, victim of the Bataclan attack and vice-president of the association Life for Paris – November 13, 2015.
The former mayor of the 10th arrondissement of Paris, PS senator Rémi Féraud at the head of the Paris en Commun group “presents a wish to the Council of Paris for the name of Françoise Rudetzki to be registered in our city”, evoking a meeting which was “deeply scarred after the attacks of 2015”.