discover the new promotion of the Legion of Honor

In addition to personalities from various areas of society, eleven people who intervened during the Arras attack were knighted in the January 1 Legion of Honor promotion.

Eleven people who intervened during the attack in Arras (Pas-de-Calais) on October 13, six police officers and five staff from the Gambetta high school, were knighted in the promotion of the Legion of Honor of January 1, published on Sunday December 31 in the Official Journal. Professor Dominique Bernard, stabbed to death in front of his high school in Arras by a radicalized former student, was posthumously elevated to the rank of knight by the Presidency of the Republic, immediately after this attack.

In total, the new civilian promotion of the Legion of Honor, the highest of French national distinctions, rewards “on par” 352 people working “in the service of the general interest”, specifies the Grand Chancellery in a press release. Illustrious or unknown to the general public, these people are divided into different ranks (knights, officers, commanders, etc.). Two join the prestigious circle of grand crosses, the highest dignity of the Legion of Honor held by only 68 other people: the hematologist Dominique Meyer, member of the Academy of Sciences, and the CEO of the world number one luxury company LVMH , Bernard Arnault.

The Nobel Prizes in Physics in the spotlight

Still in the sciences, two winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics, the Frenchman Pierre Agostini and the Franco-Swedish Anne L’Huillier, are promoted to commanders, as are the astronaut Jean-François Clervoy and the child psychiatrist Marcel Rufo. In the economic world, Jean-Michel Darrois, business lawyer, Colette Lewiner, director of EDF and the CGG oil services group, as well as David de Rothschild, honorary president of the R&CO bank, all three were promoted to grand officer. .

The ministers and parliamentarians in office cannot be named, but the former centrist minister Jean-Louis Borloo is promoted to officer, and the former Castex government minister Elisabeth Moreno becomes knight. The French ambassador to Iran Nicolas Roche, former chief of staff to Jean-Yves Le Drian when he was Minister of Foreign Affairs, was also knighted.

In the sporting field, Michel Vion, secretary general of the International Ski Federation, is made an officer, while David Lappartient, president of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee, Marion Bartoli, sports consultant, Patrick Haddad, president of the Red Star Football Club and audiovisual producer, Marc Keller, president of the Racing Club de Strasbourg, as well as Frédéric Michalak, rugby coach at Racing 92, join the knights. For the arts, the composer Vladimir Cosma was notably promoted to officer.