At least for now, Nicolas Sarkozy has escaped one humiliation. The former president (2007-2012), definitively sentenced by French criminal courts, was expected to have his Legion of Honor revoked. However, his present successor, Emmanuel Macron, who as grand master of the order has the final say, has decided "not to make any decision of this type" at this stage.

Sarkozy, who holds the rank of Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, was on December 18, 2024, handed a three-year prison sentence, including two years suspended and the remaining one at home with electronic monitoring, after being found guilty of corruption and influence peddling. Honors are usually withdrawn from those who have been discredited. "Any person sentenced for a crime or to a definitive prison term of at least one year is excluded," the Legion of Honor code states. The degradation of the former president is therefore "a matter of law," said General François Lecointre, the grand chancellor of the Legion of Honor, on March 4. As the guarantor of the order's integrity, he said he could not "imagine that the law would not apply."

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