It is a promotion of the Legion of Honor which will not fail to be commented on.
Among the 280 knights, 43 officers, 12 commanders, four grand officers and one grand cross promoted in the batch of January 1, 2023, there are three members of the first circle of the macronie.
The mayor of Pau and boss of the MoDem, François Bayrou: the ally of the majority becomes an officer.
As for the former President of the National Assembly Richard Ferrand and the former patron of the Marcheurs deputies and Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner, these two faithful among the faithful of the President are both appointed knights.
Cronyism or distinction for “service to the nation”?
The debate promises to be lively.
Especially since these last two personalities were beaten during the legislative elections of 2022. Christophe Castaner has since been appointed by power as chairman of the board of directors of the Mont-Blanc Tunnel company.
Barely arrived at the Élysée, Emmanuel Macron – Grand Master of National Orders as President of the Republic – had launched a reform of the Legion of Honor, finalized in 2018, to reduce the contingents and reserve this badge created by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 to the most deserving personalities.
Thomas Pesquet and Patrick Modiano also decorated
Other former Walker ministers appear in the list of promoted: the former Keeper of the Seals of the first five-year term, Nicole Belloubet, the former Minister of Housing, Emmanuelle Wargon, Muriel Pénicaud (Labour) and Frédérique Vidal (Higher Education) .
On the opposition side, we note the names of former right-wing ministers Michèle Alliot-Marie, Nicole Ameline, Pierre Méhaignerie or even the communist Marie-George Buffet and the socialist Hélène Geoffroy, the mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin who opposed to the rapprochement of his party with insubordinate France, and who is the main opponent of Olivier Faure at the next congress of the PS.
In 2022, the promotion of January 1 had already hit the headlines with the decoration of Agnès Buzyn, ex-Minister of Health who left the government at the start of the Covid crisis to run for mayor of Paris.
Senior officials are also distinguished.
Among which we note the name of Thomas Fatôme, general manager of the Cnam and former deputy chief of staff of Édouard Philippe at Matignon.
Outside the political and administrative sphere, several big names are honored on January 1, 2023, from astronaut Thomas Pesquet to biologist Étienne-Émile Baulieu, from playwright Florian Zeller to Nobel Prize for Literature Patrick Modiano via former tennis player Yannick Noah.