French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said he opposed stripping former head of state Nicolas Sarkozy of France’s top honour despite the definitive conviction of the right-winger last year on charges of influence-peddling and corruption.
Sarkozy, in an unprecedented punishment for a former head of state, is now wearing an electronic ankle tag after France’s Court of Cassation in December upheld a verdict for him to serve a one-year term outside of prison with the GPS device.
The combative ex-president ruled France from 2007-2012 but failed to win a second mandate in a devastating election defeat to Socialist Francois Hollande and then became embroiled in a string of legal problems.
There had been speculation Sarkozy could lose his Legion of Honour award but Macron, who as head of state is the grand master of the decoration and would have a final say, said he respected Sarkozy and would oppose such a move.
“I think it is very important that former presidents are respected,” he said on the sidelines of a trip to Madagascar, adding he believed “it would not be a good decision” to strip Sarkozy of the award.
“The fact that he was elected president by the sovereign people means he deserves respect. He has my respect. I think he has the respect of the French people,” said Macron.
General Francois Lecointre, France’s former military chief of staff who now serves as the grand chancellor of the Legion of Honour, said last month that such a removal of the award was foreseen under the rules of the order, which was established early in the 19th century by Napoleon Bonaparte.
According to the code of the Legion of Honour, any person definitively sentenced to a prison sentence equal to or greater than one year in prison is “excluded by right” from the order, Lecointre noted.
If Sarkozy is stripped of the award, he would no longer be able to wear it on pain of prosecution.
But while acknowledging that the order has its “rules”, Macron said: “If I have the freedom of manoeuvre I prefer that a former president retains his place in the order that he belongs to. It’s something to have been president of France.”
Macron himself must step down in 2027 after serving the maximum two terms.
Sarkozy is using his last remaining legal avenue, an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, to defend himself against the conviction.
He is currently on trial in a separate case on charges of accepting illegal campaign financing in an alleged pact with late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi.
The court is to give a verdict in September with prosecutors asking for a seven-year prison term for Sarkozy, who denies the charges.
Despite his legal problems, Sarkozy remains an influential figure on the right and is known to regularly meet with Macron.
© Agence France-Presse
