“She is no longer a minister, but she is the only public building still illuminated. This is how Laurent Ruquier presented Roselyne Bachelot this Monday at the opening of the first of Big heads of the season. The politician had to stay away from the microphones of RTL for two years, the time of her passage to the Ministry of Culture. “I feel like I left the show yesterday,” she told 20 minutes this noon, after registration.
If Roselyne Bachelot injured her leg falling in a train station, it did not affect her good mood. It is in a wheelchair – with which she will travel for the next two weeks – that she joined Laurent Ruquier behind the scenes to answer our questions.
Roselyne, how does it feel to come back to Les Grosses Têtes?
This morning, the taxi driver said to me: “Shall I take you to RTL? But then, it’s that you take back the Big heads ! Oh, gosh, that’s great! (laughs). When I arrived here, I was greeted by the people at reception, the show team… Everyone said to me: “We’re happy to see you again! » I drank myself a bowl of happiness!
Laurent, is this the comeback you were hoping for?
Laurent Ruquier: Which I was hoping for, no, because I was hoping that Roselyne would stay as long as possible…
Roselyne Bachelot: … He wants me badly (laughs).
LR: … Rue de Valois! When I realized that she didn’t keep her wallet, I told myself that she was going to get her morocco back from Big heads.
Do we laugh a lot in the Council of Ministers?
RB: No, we don’t laugh much. But we can laugh before the Council of Ministers because there are some merry men, in particular Eric Dupond-Moretti and Gérald Darmanin, who are purveyors of jokes. Obviously, I will tell some of them here, quoting their authors who will be terribly bored (laughs).
Laurent, what does Roselyne Bachelot bring to the “Big Heads”?
His humor, his repartee. When I had proposed to her at the time, it was not by chance, we knew that among the political staff, she was one of the funniest, that she made her comrades laugh. With her good words and her experience, we knew she was going to be a good element.
Has your humor been a weapon in politics?
RB: Yes, it allows you to take distance. Participate in a program as popular as The Big Heads gives you considerable sympathy with public opinion. When I was on a public ministerial trip, people called out to me: “So, Roselyne, when are you going back to the Big heads ? “That’s crazy! It’s the talent of Laurent, of the team, and it’s the configuration of making a show that is really popular and not vulgar.
If you had met Caroline Cayeux in the government, what would you have said to her after her sentence on homosexual people whom she called “those people”?
RB: There are real differences between us. We know them and I have never wavered in my battles in the fight against discrimination, especially those related to sexual orientation. My son, who is also a father, told me that, when he was 7 or 8 years old, I had said to him during a walk: “One day, you will fall in love, it will be with a man or of a woman and for me it will be exactly the same. Years later, he confided to me, “Mom, that day you gave me the keys to freedom. It’s a central, existential fight, on which I never failed whatever it cost me. I’m not going to change today.
LR: I want to say that Caroline Cayeux is one of “those people” sung by Jacques Brel.
RB: What is interesting in this statement is rather the failed act. She comes to apologize saying that she has changed. And she’s screwing up with it.
LR: It’s like for [le député LR] Aurélien Pradié and his story of monkeypox, when he dares to say that it is not homophobic. It’s not true, it is. If there’s no ulterior motive when he says that “It’s especially a shame for the monkeys”… There may not be any voluntarily, moreover, it is often unconscious, and that is what is dramatic. In fact, the question is always where it comes from, who does it and when.
Are you referring to the study by the Association of LGBT Journalists on “Les Grosses Têtes” deploring remarks, among other things, that are sexist and homophobic? Did it affect you?
LR: When I am asked about it, I answer, otherwise, I don’t give a damn. I want to say: try to have better fights than those. If there is one program that has changed the mindset of some listeners, it’s The Big Heads. I am not an activist, we know that, although I am perhaps a little more so than before, but all the same, when we listen to the program, we can clearly see that diversity, including sexual orientations, is bigger than before. At the time of Bouvard, there were also homosexuals, but, apart from Jacques Chazot who played the service homo, they mostly hid it: Thierry Le Luron, Jean-Claude Brialy… Those who attack us choose the wrong enemies.
Roselyne, you will appear regularly this season on BFMTV, especially on Sunday evenings in “BFMTVSD” and in “22 heures Max”… Is continuing to talk about politics and society important to you?
RB: I don’t want to be locked in a box. I have always made sure to vary. I absolutely wanted to resume a political editorial function because I think I have things to say in the field. Politics is my life. I have fights that I have been fighting for a very long time, I think I have a voice that can be heard and I like to do it in a spirit of confrontation. I regret that the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP) did not authorize me to resume my program on France Musique, but I will continue to write editorials on Forum Opera. I will also write books and resume my charitable activities.
Which are ?
RB: Ten years ago I created an association that organizes concerts for people with Alzheimer’s, I like to see the light come back to life in their eyes with the music. This, like the Global Fund to fight AIDS, structures my charitable life and, what is absolutely extraordinary, is that I could not continue because you are asked to give up all your activities associations when you are in government. I find that incredibly stupid.
Laurent, how does it feel to you not to have a show on Saturdays in the second half of the evening when you have been used to it for the past sixteen years?
LR: It makes me very happy to recover my weekends! It’s not the day of release that counts. What is important is what we do. I will have, on Paris Première, from mid-October, a program where I will be able to continue to talk about books, music and theater. I am preparing bonuses for France 2. There is one that I recorded in June and which will be broadcast in September. Then there will be one per month. I also take Children of TV sunday. Whether it’s the channel or the audience, what matters to me is doing what I enjoy in life. I will be able to continue doing it, so everything is fine.