France has announced an overhaul of the 200-year-old Légion d’Honneur, drastically cutting the number awarded each year, as part of Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to raise the standards of public life after a series of political scandals.

The prizes have been in the spotlight since the French president announced last month that France would strip Harvey Weinstein of the award following multiple accusations of sexual assault and harassment against the Hollywood producer.

French presidents have traditionally handed out about 3,000 awards a year to French citizens and foreigners but a government spokesman, Christophe Castaner, said the numbers would be significantly reduced from next year, to be awarded solely on merit.

“We do not have the Légion d’Honneur to butter people up,” Castaner said, adding that the honour should not be part of an “old boys’ network”.

There will be a 50% cut in civilian honours from 2018, a 10% drop in military awards and 25% fewer for foreigners, he said. Efforts will also be made to select winners who better reflect modern France, he said, noting that currently too many of the recipients are white men aged over 60.

Set up by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, the prize has previously been awarded to former ministers, academics, ambassadors and military officers. It is open to foreigners whose cultural or scientific talents are deemed to have contributed to France, but the awards have also been given on the basis of diplomatic objectives.



Castaner said authorities could consider “legitimate” requests to strip the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, of the Légion d’Honneur. The late Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega lost his over a drug-trafficking conviction, while that of the fashion designer John Galliano was taken away in 2012 after an antisemitic rant in a Paris bar.

Macron had already signalled he planned to limit the award, surprising many in July by awarding just 101 to mark Bastille Day instead of the customary 500-600.



Macron has made improving the standards of public life a central theme of his presidency. The first law he signed after his election in May prevented politicians from hiring relatives, after the presidential campaign of rightwing rival François Fillon was torpedoed by revelations he paid his family hundreds of thousands of euros.