French Polynesia's disgraced former president, Gaston Flosse, has returned his French Legion Of Honour in protest at not being pardoned for corruption.
In July, France's highest court upheld last year's conviction which gave him a suspended four-year jail sentence, a 170,000 US dollar fine and banned him from holding public office for three years.
In a letter to the French President, Francois Hollande, Flosse says as he makes a distinction between France and some of its mediocre representatives, he is returning the honour he had been given.
Disgraced former president Gaston Flosse says France is ungrateful to him Photo: AFP
Flosse says France is ungrateful for him having defended the nuclear weapons tests, which allowed France to become a leading power.
He says in last year's territorial election 62,000 people voted for his party but Mr Hollande chose to ignore that.
Flosse has now been appointed as advisor of his ruling Tahoeraa Huiraatira party and been given an office next to the party's caucus leader in the assembly.
