French order of precedence

The French order of precedence is a symbolic hierarchy of officials in the Government of France used to direct protocol.

The current order of precedence was established by presidential decree number 89-655 of September 13, 1989.

  1. The President of the Republic (François Hollande)
  2. The Prime Minister (Manuel Valls)
  3. The President of the Senate (Gérard Larcher)
  4. The President of the National Assembly (Claude Bartolone)
  5. Former Presidents of the Republic, in order of term
    1. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
    2. Jacques Chirac
    3. Nicolas Sarkozy
  6. The Government (Ministers forming the Government), in the order decided by the President of the Republic
  7. Former Prime Ministers, in order of term
    1. Laurent Fabius
    2. Michel Rocard
    3. Édith Cresson
    4. Édouard Balladur
    5. Alain Juppé
    6. Lionel Jospin
    7. Jean-Pierre Raffarin
    8. Dominique de Villepin
    9. François Fillon
    10. Jean-Marc Ayrault
  8. The President of the Constitutional Council (Jean-Louis Debré)
  9. The Vice President of the Conseil d'État (Jean-Marc Sauvé)
  10. The President of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (Jean-Paul Delevoye)
  11. The defender of rights[1] (Jacques Toubon)
  12. Members of the National Assembly
  13. Senators
  14. European parliament members
  15. The judicial authority represented by the first President of the Court of Cassation (Vincent Lamanda) and the public prosecutor of that court (Jean-Louis Nadal)
  16. The first President of the Revenue Court (Cour des Comptes) (Didier Migaud) and the public prosecutor of that court
  17. The Great Chancellor of the Légion d'honneur, chancellor of the National Order of Merit (Général Jean-Louis Georgelin) and the members of the councils of these orders
  18. The Chancellor of the Order of the Libération (François Jacob), and the members of the council of this order
  19. The Chief of the Defence Staff (Amiral Édouard Guillaud)

The following then apply in Paris

  1. The prefect of the Île-de-France région, prefect of Paris (Daniel Canepa)
  2. The prefect of police, prefect of the Paris defense zone (Michel Gaudin)
  3. The mayor of Paris, president of the Council of Paris (Bertrand Delanoë)
  4. The representatives to the European Parliament
  5. The chancellor of the Institute of France, the perpetual secretaries of the French Academy, the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, the Academy of Sciences, of the Académie des beaux-arts and of the Academy of moral and political sciences
  6. The general secretary of the government; the general secretary of national defence; the general secretary of the Ministry of foreign affairs
  7. The president of the administrative court of appeal of Paris (Patrick Frydman); the first president of the Paris court of appeal (Jacques Degrandi) and the general public prosecutor of that court (François Falletti)
  8. The general delegate for weaponry; the general secretary for administration of the Ministry of defence; the chief of staff of the army; the chief of staff of the navy; the chief of staff of the air force; the military governor of Paris, commanding the Île-de-France army region
  9. The president of the high council of broadcasting (CSA) (Olivier Schrameck)
  10. The president of the national commission "computing and freedoms" (CNIL) (Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin)
  11. The president of the concurrence council
  12. universities of Paris

References