Also honored are the Nobel Prize winner Esther Duflo, the psychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik, the singer Michel Sardou, the photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand and the sailor Isabelle Autissier.
Le Monde with AFP
An exceptional promotion of the Legion of Honor and the National Order of Merit rewarded, on Friday January 1, st hundreds of people engaged for months against the Covid-19, but also Michel Sardou or the Nobel Prize winner Esther Duflo.
In total, 63% of the 3,884 people decorated on Friday are for their “investment in the fight against the epidemic “,” most of them working in the shadows “, insisted the great chancellery of the Legion of Honor.
Doctor or hospital director, epidemiologist, head of accommodation for dependent elderly people (Ehpad), nurse, helicopter pilot of civil security, head of ‘business… All of these recipients have shown a “particular commitment” in health care services, of course, but also in scientific research, production of health equipment, continuity of teaching, or even “by imagining innovative cultural devices”.
Doctors, nurses, nursing aides…
Infectious disease specialist Karine Lacombe and epidemiologist Eric d’Ortenzio are thus made knights of the Legion of Honor, as is the CEO SNCF Voyageurs Christophe Fanichet for “logistical support” or CDiscount CEO Emmanuel Grenier for “business support”.
Forty people who died of Covid-19 “in the course of their duties” are also decorated posthumously, mainly doctors, nurses, orderlies, administrative agents and technical agents intervening in hospitals, nursing homes or liberal medicine, specifies the press release. -hidden = “true”>
Pou r pay tribute to the people mobilized against the Covid-19, four promotions are grouped together this Friday: those of January 1 st , 2021 and July 14, 2020 of the Legion of Honor (1,229 people) and those of May and November 2020 of the National Order of Merit (2,655).
Artists, PDDs, Nobel Prize winners…
But those who went to the front against the Covid-19 are not the only ones rewarded. The singer Michel Sardou and the photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand are thus made commanders of the Legion of Honor. The lyric artist Roberto Alagna and the singer Angélique Kidjo become officers, and are appointed knights the cellist Gautier Capuçon, the filmmakers Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano or the journalist Carole Gaessler.
The CEO of L’Oréal Jean -Paul Agon becomes a commander, Dominique Auzias, co-founder of the guide Le Petit Futé, and Christiane Lambert, president of the FNSEA, become officers, and the CEO of the Accor group Sébastien Bazin is knighted, like that of Pernod Ricard, Alexandre Ricard, or the president of ArianeGroup André-Hubert Roussel.
The Nobel Prizes of chemistry Emmanuelle Charpentier and economics Esther Duflo, the psychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik. The glaciologist Claude Lorius and the historian Mona Ozouf are elevated to the dignity of grand officer.
Resistance fighters, navigator, mayor…
Former resistance fighters Hubert Faure and Anne-Marie Krug- Basse are raised to the highest dignity, that of Grand Cross.
The navigator and president of WWF France Isabelle Autissier becomes commander. And the mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi, the former minister of agriculture, Didier Guillaume, and the national coordinator of intelligence and the fight against terrorism, Laurent Nunez, are appointed officers.
In the promotions of the National Order of Merit are also honored Friday hundreds of people who participated in the effort against Covid-19, caregivers but also directors of schools, emergency accommodation centers or the choreographer Mehdi Kerkouche and the owner of Radio-France Sibyle Veil for having put in place “innovative cultural or information devices”.