On the Legion of Honor, Jordan Bardella's bogus argument to defend Nicolas Sarkozy

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Stripped of his Legion of Honor, Nicolas Sarkozy enjoys significant support. Truly the top dog is defending the ousted former president. Jordan Bardella is one of them, demonstrating once again that the right and the far right are in favor of respecting the rule of law, but only when it concerns others. On RTL this Monday morning, the president of the National Rally (RN) expressed shock that a criminal was stripped of his Legion of Honor. "I have the feeling, like many French people, that there is an attempt to humiliate him," he argued.

The ambitious Bardella then develops an argument intended to demonstrate that this withdrawal is an infamy. "He received the Legion of Honor in the Human Bomb affair, which took place in Neuilly, for having personally engaged and entered into dialogue with a madman who was holding children hostage in a nursery school," he argues. "You can fight someone legally and politically, but I believe that we must also not forget the services that may have been rendered to France and the French Republic."

This legend is really very pretty. Louis Sarkozy himself carried it on France Inter yesterday , claiming that Jacques Chirac awarded the Legion of Honour to his dad "following his participation in the hostage-taking [sic] of HB in Neuilly in 1993" . Except that this legend is completely bogus. The Legion of Honour was awarded to Sarkozy in 2005 – twelve years after the hostage-taking. He was among the January 1st class, among the choices of the then Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. What were the reasons given? "Former Minister of State, former MP for Hauts-de-Seine, former mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine; 24 years of professional activities, elected office and military service", we can read in the Official Journal . No reference to the hostage-taking, then. The ceremony took place in a private setting, in the presence of President Chirac and the Sarkozy family. The head of state "wanted to salute the careers of Sarkozy's parents and highlight the success of their children," the President's entourage told AFP at the time .

Teacher Laurence Dreyfus and Evelyne Lambert, a medical captain with the Paris fire department, received the Legion of Honor from François Mitterrand shortly after the hostage-taking. And since they were apparently not sentenced to prison, they still hold it. Sarkozy's role in the hostage-taking was later heavily criticized by some protagonists. He did, however, receive the RAID medal.