Legion of Honor: Buzyn, Marx, Delfraissy … the promotion of January 1, 2022

A vintage turned very health crisis oriented. On January 1, 2022, the Legion of Honor distinguishes more than 500 personalities, some of whom are involved in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic such as the president of the Scientific Council Jean-François Delfraissy, as well as other personalities including the former minister of Health Agnès Buzyn. Published in the Official Journal on Saturday, the new civil promotion of the Legion of Honor, highest of French national distinctions, rewards a total of 547 people, “illustrious or unknown to the general public”, divided into different ranks (knights, officers, commanders …).

Among the decorated are Professor Jean-François Delfraissy, president of the Covid-19 scientific council, which guides the French government in the face of the pandemic. “All the members of the scientific council are also distinguished in this promotion” of commander, with the exception of two personalities already promoted. Still in the health and social field – a little more than 15% of the promotion – the former minister Agnès Buzyn, executive director of the Academy of the World Health Organization (WHO), is promoted knight. The former Minister of Health, who resigned in February 2020, was indicted in September 2021 by the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) for “endangering the lives of others” in his management of the Covid-19 epidemic.

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The emphasis on the public sector

Also promoted are Mohamed Abdelatif, vice-president of the French Red Cross (officer), and Eva Thomas, founder of the SOS incest association. This new promotion, the last of Emmanuel Macron’s five-year term, gives pride of place to the public sector (30% of the decorated), distinguishing in particular Bruno Lasserre, vice-president of the Council of State, as a “grand officer”. In the economic field (nearly 30% of the decorated) are the chef Thierry Marx (officer), as well as the former Minister of Culture of François Hollande Fleur Pellerin, president of the investment fund Korelya Capital.

The composer and conductor Betsy Jolas, promoted commander, and Pap Ndiaye, who in 2021 took over the head of the French National Museum of the History of Immigration (Palais de la Porte Dorée in Paris), knighted, come complete the list. With the promotion of July 14, the promotion of January 1 represents one of the two annual civil promotions of the Legion of Honor. Founded by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, the Legion of Honor now has 92,000 members, civilians and soldiers, rewarded for their “eminent merits in the service of the nation”.