It is one of the traditions of the transition to the new year: the distribution of the Legion of Honor.
For this promotion of January 1, 2022, 547 people received the highest national honor, a number of whom have been involved in the fight against Covid-19 over the past two years.
These “illustrious or unknown to the general public” people are divided into different ranks: knights, officers, commanders, etc.
Among the decorated are Professor Jean-François Delfraissy, president of the Covid-19 Scientific Council, who is guiding the French government in the face of the pandemic.
"All the members of the Scientific Council are also distinguished in this promotion" of commander (Arnaud Fontanet, Simon Cauchemez, Lila Bouadma, Bruno Lina, to name a few), with the exception of two personalities already promoted.
Read also Legion of Honor of January 1, 2021: bravo to the “Covid promotion”!
Also in the health and social field - which represents a little more than 15% of the promotion - the former minister Agnès Buzyn, executive director of the Academy of the World Health Organization (WHO), is promoted knight.
The former Minister of Health, who had resigned in February 2020, was indicted in September 2021 by the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) for "endangering the lives of others" in his management of the Covid-19 epidemic.
Also promoted are Mohamed Abdelatif, vice-president of the French Red Cross (officer), and Eva Thomas, founder of the SOS incest association.
Culture and the public sector also rewarded
This new promotion, the last of Emmanuel Macron's five-year term, gives pride of place to the public sector (30% of the decorated), distinguishing in particular Bruno Lasserre, vice-president of the Council of State, as a "grand officer".
In the economic field (nearly 30% of the decorated) are the chef Thierry Marx (officer), as well as the former Minister of Culture of François Hollande, Fleur Pellerin, president of the investment fund Korelya Capital.
The composer and conductor Betsy Jolas, promoted commander, and Pap Ndiaye, who in 2021 took the head of the French National Museum of the History of Immigration (Palais de la Porte Dorée in Paris), knighted, come complete the list.
Two civilian promotions take place each year: that of January 1 and that of July 14.
Founded by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, the Legion of Honor now has 92,000 members, civilians and soldiers, rewarded for their "eminent merits in the service of the nation".
