French Order of Merit for a Hungarian Policeman

For his services to French-Hungarian relations and in recognition of his outstanding merits, Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic, awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of France to Mátyás Hegyaljai, Deputy State Secretary for European Union and International Affairs of the Ministry of the Interior.

The prestigious award was presented by France’s Ambassador to Hungary, Claire Legras, at a ceremony at the French Ambassador’s Residence on Tuesday.
Mátyás Hegyaljai started his police career in 1990 as an investigator of the Baranya County Police Headquarters, then from 1995 he became a senior investigator of the Interpol Hungarian National Office of the National Police Headquarters. Between 2000 and 2002 he worked at the International Criminal Cooperation Centre, then until 2006 he was head of the National Police Headquarters, EUROPOL National Office. He worked as a specialist diplomat at the Permanent Representation of the European Union until 2011, and then again as Head of the National Office of Interpol in 2012. From 2012 to 2016, he was Deputy Director of the Centre for International Criminal Cooperation and was appointed Deputy State Secretary for the European Union and International Affairs at the Federal Ministry of the Interior on 15 January 2016.
It was added that he has been in professional contact with French law enforcement and public administration for almost 30 years. He has also studied at the Police College in Cannes-Ecluse and Saint-Cyr Au Mont d’Or in France. He was a member of the Interpol European Commission from 2012-2016, which he chaired for three years, and subsequently served as a member of Interpol’s highest decision-making body, the Interpol Executive Committee, from 2017-2018, the statement said.

Featured Photo: Twitter Interpol