Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been stripped of the prestigious National Order of the Legion of Honour, according to a state decree published on Sunday evening. The revocation follows a 2022 conviction for corruption and influence peddling.
Sarkozy, who led France from 2007-2012, 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 French president was handed a three-year prison sentence, including two years suspended and the remaining one at home with E-monitoring.
Meanwhile, in late 2024, the Court of Cassation, France’s highest court, upheld the sentence that Sarkozy had sought to challenge.
Established by the famous French dictator, Napoleon Bonaparte, in 1802, the Legion of Honour (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.
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The rules of this award mandate that any recipient must be sentenced to a term of at least one year's imprisonment if he or she is stripped of the national honour.
The revocation makes Sarkozy the second head of the French state to be stripped of the Legion of Honour; the first was the notorious Marshal Philippe Pétain.
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 “deserved respect”.
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