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Macron told ‘let Josephine Baker be buried in Paris Panthéon’

Cabaret singer, Resistance heroine and civil rights activist Josephine Baker should be awarded France's highest honour and be buried in the Panthéon - that's the demand of a petition to president Emmanuel Macron on the subject of the American star.

Published: 10 July 2021 09:00 CEST
Macron told 'let Josephine Baker be buried in Paris Panthéon'
Cabaret star Josephine Baker. Photo: AFP

The online petition has now gathered 50,000 signatures and local authorities in Paris have also backed the move to have the black star re-interred in the Panthéon along with the most famous names in French history.

The petition was started by essayist Laurent Kupferman and has received backing from French celebrities including former culture minister Jack Lang, TV presenter Stephane Bern and actress Line Renaud.

Kupferman said: “Josephine Baker was a free and committed woman, a feminist, a resistance fighter, and a committed activist against racism and anti-Semitism. In a world turned in on itself where division and racism are exacerbated, her struggle finds a natural resonance today.”  

Born in the USA, Baker moved to Paris in the 1930s where she quickly became famous for her risqué cabaret acts, which famously included dancing in nothing but a skirt made of bananas.

Her signature banana skirt continues to inspire cabaret acts. Photo by FRANCOIS GUILLOT / AFP

Fleeing racism and segregation in America, Baker became a devotee of France, later marrying a Frenchman and taking French citizenship.

When war broke out in 1939 she remained in France and became a member of the Resistance, using her fame to extract valuable information from military leaders.

After the war she became involved in civil rights battles in the USA and Europe and adopted 12 children.

She died in Paris in 1975, but was buried in Monaco, where she was living in her final years.

The idea of having her body moved to the Panthéon was first put forward in 2013 under François Hollande’s government but was not approved.

Now supporters hope she can be given this final honour, which would make her only the sixth woman buried in the Panthéon.

Entry to the Panthéon is France’s highest posthumous honour, extended to those who have performed a great service to the country.

The final decision lies with the president, although in recent years there have been public votes on deserving candidates.

Earlier this year, Macron rejected a call to move poet Arthur Rimbaud to the Panthéon, saying he did not want to go against the wishes of Rimbaud’s family. Supporters had called for the poet to be moved to the Pathéon and buried next to his lover Paul Verlaine.

However in 2020 he presided over a ceremony to inter writer and World War II hero Maurice Genevoix in the Paris monument. 

You can sign the Josephine Baker petition here.

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COST OF LIVING

What is considered a good salary in Paris?

The higher-paying jobs are heavily concentrated in the French capital, but set against that is the high cost of living - especially the cost of renting or buying a home. So what is considered a 'high-earner' in Paris?

Published: 25 June 2024 16:51 CEST
What is considered a good salary in Paris?

Centrist Renaissance candidate Sylvain Maillard, running for re-election in France’s snap parliamentary elections, was trying to highlight the high cost of living in the capital in a debate on RMC Radio 

“You have extremely expensive rents [in Paris], between €1,500 and €1,700, and then there are all the charges and taxes to pay,” he said.

But what most people seized on was his comment that anyone earning €4,000 a month after tax would not be considered rich in Paris – he predictably was accused of being out of touch with French people’s lives.

There’s no doubt that €4,000 a month is good salary that most people would be happy with – but how much do you need to earn to be considered ‘rich’ in Paris?

National averages

Earlier this year, the independent Observatoire des Inégalités calculated poverty and wealth levels in France.

READ ALSO How much money do you need to be considered rich in France?

According to its calculations, to be considered ‘rich’ in France, a single person with no dependants needs to earn more than €3,860 per month, after taxes and social charges. Around eight percent of single workers have this sum deposited into their bank balance every month, it said.

A total of 23 percent of workers take home €3,000 or more every month, while the top 10 percent clear €4,170. 

To be in the top one percent of earners in France in 2024, one person must bring in at least €10,000 per month. After taxes and social charges.

The median income – the median is the ‘middle value’ of a range of totals – of tax households in mainland France is €1,923 per month after taxes and social charges, according to INSEE 2021 data, which means that a ‘rich’ person earns about twice as much as a person on the median income, according to the Observatoire.

Paris situation

About 75 percent of people living in Paris earn less than €4,458 per month, according to Insee data – so according to those calculations, 25 percent of Parisians earn the equivalent of the top 10 percent in France. 

But that city-wide average still hides a wide degree of variation. In the sixth arrondissement, the median income is €4,358 per month, after tax. In the seventh, it’s €4,255.  Further out, those bringing home €4,600 a month in the 19th and 20th arrondissements are among the top 10 percent in wealth terms.

But still, the median income in Paris is €2,639, significantly higher than the €1,923 France-wide median.

That would mean – using the Observatoire des Inégalités’ starting point for wealth – that a Paris resident, living on their own, would have to bring home €5,278 per month to be considered ‘rich’. 

France is a heavily centralised country, with many of the highest-paying industries concentrated within the capital, meaning there is much more opportunity to secure a high-wage job if you live in Paris.

Cost of living

Even these figures should all be taken with a pinch of salt because of the relatively high cost of living in the capital, compared to elsewhere in France. Paris is objectively an expensive place to call home.

In 2023, France Stratégie published a report on the disposable income of French households, after housing, food and transport costs were deducted. It found that, on average, people living in the Paris region had more left to spend, due to higher incomes and despite the fact that housing costs more.

It’s the income paradox in action. A person with a take-home salary of €4,000 per month has more money to spend if they live and work outside Paris. But they’re much more likely to earn that much if they live and work in Paris, where it’s not as valuable. 

Someone who earns a ‘rich-level’ salary in Paris might not appear rich – because they live in an expensive area, and a surrounded by very wealthy people in property that’s out of reach all-but the fattest of wallets. But they’re still earning more than twice the median income in France.

And that’s what Sylvain Maillard was getting at, clumsily as he may have expressed it.

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