The American actress Natalie Portman and the President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde are among the personalities distinguished by the Legion of Honor on the occasion of July 14, according to a decree published this Tuesday in the Official Journal. Two archbishops and an imam also appear on the list.
This new civilian promotion of the Legion of Honor, the highest French national distinction, created in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, rewards a total of 619 people who embody, in the words of the Grand Chancellery, “merit, good citizenship and courage”.
518 people were knighted, while 101 others were promoted to a higher rank: 79 officers, 16 commanders, four grand officers. The physicist Serge Haroche, Nobel Prize winner, and the historian Michelle Perrot, pioneer of women’s history in France, received the highest distinction, that of the Grand Cross. Among the four personalities elevated to the dignity of grand officer is former minister Christine Lagarde, an officer since 2014.
Three religious figures in the spotlight
Three religious figures, including two Catholic archbishops, are joining this promotion. Monsignor Laurent Ulrich, Archbishop of Paris, already a Knight of the Legion of Honor since 2017, is promoted to the rank of officer. After fourteen years at the head of the diocese of Lille, he was appointed to Paris in 2022. In recent years, he has notably been at the forefront during the reopening of Notre-Dame at the end of 2024. On September 25 and 26, he will receive Pope Leo XIV in the capital.
Another archbishop received the distinction: Monsignor Jérôme Beau, archbishop of Poitiers since January 2025, after leading the diocese of Bourges for seven years. Originally from Paris, Monsignor Beau was also auxiliary bishop of Paris and presided over the Collège des Bernardins from 2008 to 2018.
Mohamed Loueslati, imam and interregional prison chaplain, is promoted to officer. Knight since 2016, he has, in addition to his duties as chaplain, worked as a religious mediator in penitentiary establishments in the Rennes region, where he worked with radicalized prisoners to assess their degree of adherence to these ideas and attempt to deconstruct their beliefs. He is the author of a work devoted to Islam in prisons, published by Bayard in 2015.
The world of culture and politics widely represented
The star dancer Dorothée Gilbert, who has just said goodbye to the stage of the Paris Opera, is knighted, as are the visual artist Eva Jospin, whose retrospective was presented at the Grand Palais, the director Rebecca Zlotowski, the playwright and director Wajdi Mouawad, as well as the president and director of the Louvre Christophe Leribault.
In the political sphere, the mayor of Antibes and former minister Jean Leonetti, co-author with Alain Claeys of the 2016 end-of-life law, is named knight, the former minister Jacqueline Gourault is promoted to officer, and the mayor of Arles Patrick de Carolis becomes commander. Scientists also appear in this list, including Belgian researcher François Gemenne and doctor Ghada Hatem-Gantzer, founder of the Maison des femmes de Saint-Denis.
Citizen initiative on the rise, tribute to the harkis
In this promotion, 54 people were decorated as part of the citizens’ initiative. Established by Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008 and reactivated in 2025, this system makes it possible to send an application directly to the Grand Chancellery, in order to bring out profiles outside the traditional channels of ministries.
This promotion is finally accompanied by a special promotion of recognition to the harkis, which distinguishes 17 people. Recruited mainly as auxiliaries to the French army during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962), the harkis were abandoned by France at the end of the conflict. Tens of thousands of them and their families had fled reprisal massacres in Algeria before being herded into France, often in undignified conditions.
