As the new year begins, a new promotion of the Legion of Honor and of the National Order of Merit was announced in the Official Journal on January 1, 2021. 3884 people, split equally between men and women, are distinguished at this start 2021. Health crisis requires, nearly 63% of the newly decorated are for their commitment to the fight against Covid-19, as desired by the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron, also grand master of national orders.
Read also: Legion of Honor: the complete list of members of the promotion of January 1, 2020
In detail, 1229 people are decorated with the Legion of Honor: 1087 knights, 111 officers, 21 commanders, 7 grand officers and 3 grandcross.
Among them, 40 people who died as a result of Covid-19 are posthumously appointed knight as permitted by the Legion of Honor code for people "
killed in the performance of their duty
".
In the National Order of Merit, 2,655 people are distinguished, divided between 2,385 knights, 225 officers, 35 commanders, 7 grand officers and 3 grand cross.
Read also: The Legion of Honor highlights its exceptional places
Among the recipients of the Legion of Honor, we find in particular Karine Lacombe, head of the infectious diseases department at Saint-Antoine hospital in Paris, the CEO of SNCF Voyageurs Christophe Fanichet, the president of HSBC France Samir Assaf, the cellist Gautier Capuçon, the filmmakers Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, the journalist Carole Gaessler or the CEO of Cdiscount Emmanuel Grenier.
The singer Michel Sardou and the photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand are made commanders of the Legion of Honor.
Lyrical artist Roberto Alagna and singer Angélique Kidjo become officers.
L'Oréal CEO Jean-Paul Agon becomes a commander, Dominique Auzias, co-founder of the guide
Le Petit Futé
and Christiane Lambert, president of the FNSEA, become officers, and the CEO of the Accor group Sébastien Bazin is knighted, just like that of Pernod Ricard, Alexandre Ricard, or the chairman of ArianeGroup André-Hubert Roussel.
Also honored as commanders are the Nobel prizes for chemistry Emmanuelle Charpentier and economics Esther Duflo, the psychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik.
Glaciologist Claude Lorius and historian Mona Ozouf are elevated to the dignity of Grand Officer.
Former resistance fighters Hubert Faure and Anne-Marie Krug-Basse were raised to the highest dignity, that of grandcross.
The navigator and president of WWF France Isabelle Autissier becomes a commander.
And the mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi, the former Minister of Agriculture Didier Guillaume and the national coordinator of intelligence and the fight against terrorism Laurent Nunez are appointed officers.
In the promotions of the National Order of Merit are honored hundreds of people who participated in the effort against Covid-19, caregivers but also directors of schools, emergency accommodation centers or the choreographer Mehdi Kerkouche and the owner of Radio-France Sibyle Veil for having put in place “innovative cultural or information systems”.
To pay tribute to the people mobilized against the Covid-19, four promotions are grouped together this Friday: those of January 1, 2021 and July 14, 2020 of the Legion of Honor (1,229 people) and those of May and November 2020 of the order national merit (2655).