Will French President Emmanuel Macron revoke his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy's Legion of Honor decoration? Four months ago, Sarkozy was definitively convicted of corruption and influence peddling, and sentenced to three years in prison, two of which were suspended and the remaining one under home detention with an electronic monitoring. Since then, Macron has not revealed his intentions on the matter. However, pressure has been mounting on him from all sides to expel Sarkozy from the national order of merit – or not.

Sarkozy was awarded the rank of Knight of the Legion of Honor by his predecessor Jacques Chirac, in 2005, and later elevated to the rank of Grand Cross, the order's most prestigious class, in 2007, due to his election to the presidency. His case is due to be reviewed by the order's Grand Chancery over the spring of 2025. General François Lecointre, who heads the institution, expressed his opinion in a rare press conference on March 4: The revocation of Sarkozy's Legion of Honor was "lawful," and the matter was not subject to "much uncertainty," the grand chancellor stated, as he announced that the disciplinary procedure would soon begin.

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