Sarkozy excluded from the Legion of Honor: the Republic gets rid of a crook of the Republic

It is a fall at the height of arrogance. Nicolas Sarkozy, former President of the Republic, was officially excluded from the Legion of Honor after his final conviction for corruption. He is the first head of state under the Fifth Republic to undergo such an affront. A strong, justified, expected – and salutary act. By the voice of his lawyer, Sarkozy “takes note” of this exclusion, while taking refuge behind a final appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. A defensive posture, almost pathetic, for the one who has long thought he was untouchable.

But you have to call a cat a cat. Nicolas Sarkozy was found guilty of behaving like a thug. A luxury thug, in costume and with address book, but a thug all the same. And now he loses the honors of the Republic, he who did not hesitate to betray them. Let us remember his words. In 2005, then Minister of the Interior, he demanded to “clean up the Kärcher” the working -class neighborhoods and qualified young people who were idle “scum”. Today, it is he who embodies this scum, elite version: the one that lies, manipulates, corrupts, abuses power and believes that his status puts it above the laws.

It is no longer only a question of morality, but a raw truth: this man has sali the Republic. His radiation from the Legion of Honor is not a scandal, it is a minimum. We do not decorate those who betrayed the confidence of the people. So yes, Sarkozy is indeed a scum. But not the one he was showing his finger with contempt. A scum in white collar, harmful on a large scale, which profaned the state and trampled on the exemplarity that its function required. It is time for the Republic to cease to honor those who have dishonored her. Sarkozy will remain in history books. But not for what he wanted. For what has become of it: a symbol of corrupt power, fallen without glory.