Legion of Honor withdrawn: Sarkozy-Pétain comparisons "completely absurd," says Sophie Primas

Nicolas Sarkozy has not escaped comparisons with Marshal Pétain. Sentenced to a year in prison under an ankle monitor in the wiretapping affair, the former President of the Republic was expelled from the Legion of Honor . He became the second French head of state to be subjected to such a sanction, after Philippe Pétain.

The latter had been stripped of his Legion of Honour after his conviction in 1945 for high treason and intelligence with the enemy during the Second World War. Government spokesperson Sophie Primas, a guest on RMC , did not want to "comment on the administrative court's decision", but deemed the comparisons made with Marshal Pétain "absolutely unworthy and totally unjust".

French President Emmanuel Macron had expressed reservations about potentially stripping Nicolas Sarkozy of the Legion of Honour at the end of April. "From my perspective, from where I am, I think it would not be a good decision," he said on the sidelines of a trip to Madagascar.

Sophie Primas took advantage of her appearance on the Grandes Gueules show to reaffirm her affiliation with Les Républicains. "I never left my political family out of a belief that the ultra-center would bring extremes to Parliament, or even to government. All my life, I've fought against the extremes, so that's not my philosophy," the government spokesperson declared.

The latter even said she was "very impatient" for the right-left divide to return. "My philosophy is rather to have a democratic debate, which is a calm debate, of convictions, with arguments, but a right-left debate," she concluded.

This isn't her first outburst against the central bloc. In May, Sophie Primas stated that "Macronism will probably come to an end in the coming months." Although the government spokesperson insisted at the time that it was a blunder, she is definitely not in favor of centrist ideas.