Vergennes
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The chances of French mayors, civil servants and professors receiving an honour plummeted yesterday after President Macron said he would halve the number of civilian recipients of the Légion d’honneur, the country’s highest decoration.
Mr Macron is aiming to restore the prestige of the 215-year-old order, founded by Napoleon Bonaparte, after decades of honours inflation.
About 3,000 medals have been awarded annually in recent years, the bulk of them going to worthy members of the establishment, often for long service. A third were awarded to the military, but that will be cut by 10 per cent.
Mr Macron aims to restore Bonaparte’s original purpose of an award for merit, after the revolution abolished the orders of chivarly under the pre-revolutionary aristocratic system, a government spokesman said.
“You do not get the Legion d’honneur by sticking with the daily grind . . . nor by being one of the chums,” he added after the cabinet endorsed the president’s decision.
Despite its wide distribution, the discreet red thread of legion membership, worn always on the left lapel, is still coveted in France and abroad.
The chevalier, or knight, by far the most common of the five grades of the legion, represents an honour higher than Britain’s CBE but short of a British knighthood. The other grades are officer, commander, grand officer and grand cross. The president automatically heads the order as the Grand Master.
Critics of the system have long railed against the decoration of pop singers, television journalists and other stars. In 1998, President Chirac made every member of the victorious football World Cup squad chevaliers.
The decoration is used liberally for projecting French prestige around the world, with embassies awarding local businessmen and others for services relations with France.
Dozens of American entertainers are chevaliers or higher, including Barbra Streisand, Bob Dylan, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Robert Redford. In 2009, President Sarkozy elevated Clint Eastwood to the exalted commander rank. The foreign awards are now to be cut by 25 per cent.
Several legionnaires are stripped of the honour every year. Mr Macron called last week for Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood producer, to lose his membership, after he was engulfed in a sex scandal. John Galliano, the British fashion designer, lost his in 2012 after he was convicted over a drunken antisemitic tirade in a Paris bar. Syria’s President Assad still enjoys his membership.
In November 2015, President Hollande wanted to confer the award posthumously on all 130 victims of the Paris terrorist attacks until he was dissuaded and settled on a new “medal of national gratitude”. The legion’s administrators argued that the honour rewards achievement, not victimhood.
Mr Macron set a first example on Bastille day, when he signed off on only 101 legions from 600 which had been approved. President Hollande approved 700 on the previous Bastille day.
Striking out names, Mr Macron questioned the merits of each, le Figaro newspaper said.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...-prestige-of-frances-highest-honour-92zc6237h
Good. I had enough of it being given like free candies to all kind of charlatans and highly questionable personalities. It should only be received by persons who truly deserved it and who showed high merit.
