“A recent modification of the code has completely excluded the President of the Republic of the procedure” | EUROtoday

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COndamné definitively in December 2024 to 3 years’ imprisonment, together with a farm, within the listening affair, Nicolas Sarkozy should lose his legion of honor. Government statements and press articles give the impression that this withdrawal would require Emmanuel Macron’s settlement. In actuality, a latest modification of the Code of the Legion of Honor utterly excluded the President of the Republic of the process, undoubtedly with a view to permit him to specific his reprobation with out calling into query the withdrawal. Explanation.

The withdrawal of the Legion of Honor, which formally takes the type of an exclusion of order, can intervene in two methods. He can first be pronounced in opposition to anybody who has dedicated “An act contrary to honor” (Article R96 of the Legion of Honor Code). In such a case, a contradictory process is open and the council of the order offers an opinion. To decline in favor of exclusion, a majority of two thirds of the voters is critical. Finally, the exclusion determination is presumably taken by the President of the Republic, an awesome grasp of the order of the Legion of Honor.

But that is one other case and one other process that apply to Nicolas Sarkozy. Article R91 of the code certainly offers that “People condemned are excluded from the order (…) to a suspended sentence equal to or more than a year ”. Exclusion is then compulsory, it does not require any decision. Until recently, we could have claimed that she needed to be formalized by the President of the Republic. Article R106 generally provided that exclusion and suspension (the most serious penalties) were “Pronounced by decree of the President of the Republic”while censorship (more gentle pain) was enacted by the Grand Chancellor. In the case of an exclusion due to conviction to a prison sentence of a firm year, article R107 added that it was up to the Grand Chancellor to register the mention of exclusion on the registrar of the Legion of Honor.

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https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2025/05/07/legion-d-honneur-de-nicolas-sarkozy-une-recente-modification-du-code-a-completement-exclu-le-president-de-la-republique-de-la-procedure_6603825_3232.html