Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been stripped of the Légion d’honneur, France’s highest award, following his conviction for corruption, which sentenced him to a year in prison, according to an order published on Sunday in the official government journal.
The former president (2007-2012) has also been excluded from the National Order of Merit, becoming only the second French head of state to lose these distinctions after Marshal Pétain, who was stripped of the Légion d’honneur for collaborating with German Nazis, following his conviction for treason in August 1945.
This decision was anticipated since Sarkozy’s conviction was finalised when an appeal was rejected by the Court of Cassation in December.
In the so-called “wiretapping affair,” Sarkozy was found guilty in 2014 of attempting to bribe a magistrate, Gilbert Azibert, to obtain confidential information, with the help of his lawyer Thierry Herzog.
All three were sentenced, both in the initial trial and on appeal, to three years in prison, one of which is to be served.
Following the rejection of his final appeal in France, Sarkozy faced automatic exclusion from the Légion d’honneur, which is mandated for individuals definitively convicted of a crime or sentenced to one year or more in prison.
In such circumstances, the revocation is automatic, as confirmed in March by the Grand Chancellor of the Légion d’honneur, General François Lecointre, who signed the order stripping Sarkozy of both titles at the grand cross level, the highest rank.
Beyond the wiretapping case, Sarkozy is implicated in several other legal matters and notably appeared in court in early 2025 over allegations of Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential campaign.
