Nicolas Sarkozy, a great-cust of the Legion of Honor, must be excluded from order because of his conviction to one year in prison in the listening case. But the former head of state has a chance to escape the sanction.
Made Grand-Croix, Nicolas Sarkozy no longer has the right to be a member of the Order of the Legion of Honor. At least theoretically. As the Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honor pointed out, General François Lecointre, on Tuesday March 4, the code of this order provides for a “law” withdrawal from the honorary title to any person condemned for a crime or to a firm sentence equal to or greater than one year. However, the former President of the Republic was definitively sentenced to three years in prison, including a farm, in the listening case last December.
“The exclusion being planned de facto by the Code of the Legion of Honor, I do not think that there are many uncertainties,” said the Grand Chancellor at a press conference in Paris, stating that “the disciplinary procedure will be launched” and treated by the Council of the Order. And the former chief of staff of the armies to add: “Things will happen in their time and I think they will arrive”. The case could however take several months: it must be examined by the 16 members of the Council of the Order in the spring according to the confidences of the Grand Chancellery at Ouest-France.
But Nicolas Sarkozy could count on a small chance of avoiding an exclusion from the order of the Legion of Honor. Only the President of the Republic, as a grand master of the Order, can pronounce the exclusion of a member by decree. The former head of state therefore hopes to benefit from the indulgence of Emmanuel Macron who has not failed to consult him on various subjects since he settled at the Elysée.
Reservations expressed by Macron
The Code of the Legion of Honor actually provides that in the event of a sanction against a member of the Legion of Honor for an “act contrary to honor”, it is to the Head of State that the last word returns. He can follow the decision of the Council of the Order or lighten the sanction, but cannot worsen it reports Politico quoting members of the Council. Three sanctions are provided by the texts: censorship, temporary suspension and final exclusion.
Emmanuel Macron could therefore hesitate to sanction his predecessor, he had also expressed his reluctance to withdraw certain honors in December 2023. At the time, the case did not focus on Nicolas Sarkozy, but on Gérard Depardieu who had been the subject of a program Additional investigation : the inappropriate behavior and the gravelly outings of the actor had pushed the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul-Malak, to question the honors of the artist. Emmanuel Macron then defended Gérard Depardieu and declared on France 5 : “It is not on the basis of a report that is removed the Legion of Honor from an artist” recalling that the order of the Legion of Honor “is not there to make morals”.
The situation is this time very different, since the exclusion of the order of Nicolas Sarkozy is not motivated by a report, but by a conviction. The Legion of Honor Code stipulates that a conviction leads to an ex officio exclusion. Will the members of the Council of the Order and the President of the Republic brave the texts to spare the former head of state? The option does not seem possible for the Grand Chancellor, but his opinion alone is not enough and it is not he who contrasts at the end. The fact remains that the Council defends the hypothesis of exclusion, it will be difficult for the Head of State to go against this opinion in a case as delicate as this one: the withdrawal of honors to one of his predecessors. Nicolas Sarkozy should have the opportunity to defend himself before a decision is made. The man, now 70 years old, is already the first former head of state to have been sentenced to firm prison, he could be the second to be excluded from the Legion of Honor, just after Marshal Pétain.