Like every year, more than a hundred people have received this prestigious distinction or been promoted to a higher rank.
A diversified 2024 vintage. Like every year, on the occasion of the national holiday, France awards the Legion of Honor to many actors from civil society, but also artists or political figures. Sometimes posthumously, as for the Franco-Bosnian journalist Arman Soldin, killed in the line of duty in Ukraine on May 9. Video coordinator at Agence France Presse (AFP), he lost his life at the age of 32 while on the front line, not far from the besieged town of Bakhmout, in the east of Ukraine.
AFP expressed its emotion. “We are moved and touched by this distinction for Arman”, said the agency’s chief information officer, Phil Chetwynd. This posthumous decoration “honors his superb journalism and helps keep his memory alive.” Arman Soldin was praised for his humanism, writes the agency in a dispatch Friday morning. He was described by his colleagues as a journalist “always serious” Who “filmed as close as possible”, even on the most difficult terrain, continues AFP.
Resistants among the decorated
Other decorations were awarded for acts of bravery, such as those granted to the three passers-by who intervened during the knife attack in Annecy (Haute-Savoie), on June 8. Promotions have also been granted to resistance fighters from the Second World War, such as Andrée Gros, stopped at the age of 18 years old in March 1944, tortured in Angoulême prison then deported to the Ravensbrück camp then to Buchenwald (Germany), from which she escaped in 1945. She has just been promoted Grand Cross, the highest rank of the Legion of Honour. Resistants Colbert Lejeune, Martha Mille, Ginette Munier and Henri Toppin were also decorated on Friday.
Among other appointments, former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin rose directly to the rank of Commander of the Legion of Honor. The mayor of Meaux, Jean-François Copé (LR), the former president of the National Assembly, François de Rugy, and the former overseas minister, Annick Girardin, are among the political figures appointed or promoted this year. The boss of TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanné, already knighted in 2015, is promoted to the rank of officer. Outside the Official Journal, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also received the Grand Cross from Emmanuel Macron on Friday morning.
In the world of the arts, singer Sheila joins the club of 79,000 decorated as a knight, as does director Michel Hazanavicius (OSS 117, The Artist). The actress and singer Françoise Fabian is elevated to the rank of grand officer, as is the actor Christian Clavier. Journalists Patrick Montel and Liseron Boudoul also appear in this promotion. As for athletes, Sarah Ourahmoune, world champion and vice–president of there Federation french of boxing, East promoted officer. THE navigators Charles Caudrelier and Maud Fontenoy are also named knights.