Nicolas Sarkozy loses France’s highest honor following corruption conviction.
A state decree issued on Sunday has removed former French President Nicolas Sarkozy from the National Order of the Legion of Honor. This action follows his 2022 conviction for corruption and influence peddling.
The Legion of Honor (Légion d’honneur), established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, is France’s most prestigious award. It is awarded for outstanding service, both civil and military, and signifies distinction and official recognition of exceptional merit. Legion of Honor rules stipulate that any recipient sentenced to imprisonment for a year or more must be excluded.
The removal is a result of the conviction in the “wiretapping affair.” Sarkozy, president of France from 2007 to 2012, was found guilty in 2021 of attempting to bribe a judge for confidential information related to a separate investigation into his 2007 presidential campaign.
In 2023, he received a three-year prison sentence, with two years suspended and the remaining year served at home under electronic monitoring. The Court of Cassation, France’s highest court, upheld the sentence in late 2024 after Sarkozy challenged it.
Sarkozy is only the second French head of state to be stripped of the Legion of Honor, the first being Marshal Philippe Petain. Petain, the leader of the Nazi puppet regime of Vichy France during World War II, was convicted of high treason in 1945.
The decision to revoke the award was made despite reported hesitation from current French President Emmanuel Macron, who stated in April that he believed the former president “deserves respect.”
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