According to Le Nouvel Obs, singer Michel Sardou would soon be decorated with the National Order of Merit, sparking an outcry among feminists.
“A farewell gift to the artist”: Emmanuel Macron wishes to give Michel Sardou a medal of Merit, we learned The New Obs this Tuesday. For this, the Head of State “intends to present the 77-year-old singer with his decorations as Grand Officer of the National Order of Merit during a ceremony planned for June at the Elysée.” Michel Sardouwho announced – once again – that he was ending his career after his final tour, is “a choice of the heart” for Emmanuel Macronadds the newspaper.
According to a close friend of the President of the Republic, interviewed by Le Nouvel Obs, Michel Sardou “was able to diagnose, decades before Michel Houellebecqmale discomfort in his texts.” This was all it took to spark a controversy, Michel Sardou often being criticized for his conservative or even reactionary positions, his song lyrics sometimes accused of racism and sexism.
On social networks, indignation quickly emerged. “The patriarchy is going to fall, it is already faltering. But they will all decorate each other first,” criticized MP Sandrine Rousseau on X – formerly Twitter in the wake of the Nouvel Obs article. In the camp of Michel Sardou’s defenders, we find Isabelle Balkany, who is delighted with such a distinction: “Yes, you ‘deserve’ the ‘National Merit’… For the honor you have given to our beautiful language with the magnificent lyrics that you wrote… For the sublime music that you composed and which touched the hearts of everyone, from 7 to 77 years old…”
As a reminder, the National Order of Merit “rewards distinguished merits acquired either in a public, civil or military function, or in the exercise of a private activity”, according to the Public Service website. And it’s not free: in the law, it is stated that the decorated person must “purchase the medal from the Paris Mint or from private manufacturers”, this being “not provided by the administration .” The cost of such an object – the medal of Grand Officer of the National Order of Merit? 2,050 euros on the site from the Paris Mint…