Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been excluded from the prestigious National Order of the Legion of Honor, according to a state decree published on Sunday. The revocation follows a 2022 conviction for corruption and influence peddling.
Established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, the Legion of Honor (Légion d’honneur) is currently France’s highest award. It is bestowed for exemplary civil or military service and is regarded as a mark of distinction and official recognition of exceptional merit. The rules of the Legion of Honor mandate the exclusion of any recipient sentenced to a term of imprisonment of one year or more.
The exclusion stems from a conviction in what has become known as the “wiretapping affair.” In 2021, Sarkozy, who led France from 2007 to 2012, was found guilty of attempting to bribe a judge in exchange for confidential information about a separate investigation related to his 2007 presidential campaign.
In 2023, the former president was handed a three-year prison sentence, including two years suspended and the remaining one at home with electronic monitoring. In late 2024, the Court of Cassation, France’s highest court, upheld the sentence that Sarkozy had sought to challenge.
The revocation makes Sarkozy the second head of the French state to be stripped of the Legion of Honor; the first was the notorious Marshal Philippe Petain. The head of the Nazi puppet regime of Vichy France during World War II was convicted of high treason in 1945.
The decision to strip Sarkozy of the award came despite the reported reluctance of current French President Emmanuel Macron, who said in April that he thought that the former head of state “deserves respect.”
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