Tristan Waleckx’s repeated requests to Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella will have drawn a blank. Neither will face him in the traditional red armchair sequence, which closes each episode of the investigative show Further investigationbroadcast every Thursday at 8:55 p.m. on France 2. The issue of this Thursday, October 27 is however dedicated to the links between the party of the ex-pretendant at the Élysée and senior officials close to Vladimir Putin.
“We offered Marine Le Pen, Jordan Bardella, Julien Odoul, Sébastien Chenu and almost all the executives of the National Rally”, confides the one who has held the reins of the program since September 2021. “They all told us no. Faced with these refusals, the journalist did not hesitate to appeal to his community on Twitter, garnering thousands of likes on his appeal published on October 18. “Madame Le Pen, you who know our seriousness since you use our Further investigation to interview a minister, could you please respond to our invitation to come to the red armchairs to talk about the RN / Russia links that we have discovered? “, he writes. Tristan Waleckx also sent two similar messages to Jordan Bardella, one of the two contenders for the presidency of the RN. Without answer.
Despite the insistence of the journalist, the production of Further investigation finally had to turn to Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, a former MEP labeled FN who will face the investigative journalist on the show. However, his appeals on social networks have not always been in vain. The presence of Jérôme Salomon, Director General of Health, to comment on the survey on pesticide metabolites released on September 22, 2022, had also been the subject of a call on social networks before he accepted “after six months of unjustified refusals.
“A duty to respond”
“It sometimes happens to us in investigations to have officials who do not respond,” explains Tristan Waleckx. The journalist, however, makes the difference between public decision-makers and commercial players, such as, for example, the bosses of large retailers who were at the heart of an issue of Further investigation released in early September. “When it is politicians or senior civil servants who are responsible for the dysfunctions that are brought to light, we say to ourselves that they almost have a duty to respond. »
It is this postulate that encouraged Tristan Waleckx to appeal to Internet users concerning the subject of pesticide metabolites. “There was indeed a craze, he rejoices after the fact. So much so that we ended up talking to the office of the Minister of Health. They told us that they were going to put pressure on the General Directorate of Health. A few days later, Jérôme Salomon will settle down for twenty minutes in the red armchair. “It allows officials to come and give their explanations and it avoids having an overwhelming investigation,” insists the journalist.
“Forcing” methods?
Despite his many attempts, the one who has been the face of Further investigation did not manage to renew the test for the report broadcast this Thursday, October 22. In the comments of his many digital elbow calls, some also had fun with the “forcer” side of his repeated requests.
Tristan Waleckx recalls that he is above all an investigative journalist. “Our job is sometimes to be insistent and tenacious,” he says. And if by “forcer” we mean tenacious professionally, I gladly assume it. He further explains that the teams of Further investigation have no problem insisting, one, two, three or even more times when they know that ” [leurs] requests are legitimate.
The journalist believes that social networks are also a good place to make decision-makers face up to their responsibilities. “Sometimes it’s a little easy to say no because you’re annoyed. It is our duty as journalists to reveal to people when they refuse to answer us. We are asked to do journalism, not to enter into the communication plans of the people we want to interview. »
A “frank and direct” discussion
Become cult over the investigations broadcast in the investigation program of France 2, the sequence of the red chair is now unmissable. Tristan Waleckx is amused to know that she is so popular and wants to preserve this post-reportage one-on-one moment. “It’s a frank and direct discussion where we ask absolutely all the questions. But that does not mean that our goal is to destabilize or attack our guests. On the contrary, we want to give them time to respond. »
The interviewer believes that the balancing act he indulges in is to “ask questions which are not necessarily pleasant in substance but which remain sympathetic in form”. He is convinced that the most frank answers cannot be born out of aggressiveness, even if one must always remain “implacable on the substance”.
“The first interview in the red armchairs that I attended was conducted by Benoît Duquesne, who recruited me in 2012, recalls Tristan Waleckx. He interviewed Didier Schuller who was then involved in corruption cases. He asked him: “So Mr. Schuller, did you hit the cash register?” with the implication that it was no big deal. That day, Didier Schuller had been quite unusual in his frankness and he had said things he would probably never have said if he had been pointed at and stuck with his back to the wall. »
Know how to bounce back
But no one is forced to sit against their will in the chair, as shown by the refusal of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella. In these cases, the teams Further investigation must redouble their ingenuity. “This leads us to push our investigation a little further,” says Tristan Waleckx.
He assures that the sequence shot Tuesday, October 25 with Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, very rare in the media, was the subject of “scotching” and “not very shiny” revelations on the links between the French far right and the Kremlin. “I think that watching television, Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella will perhaps say to themselves that they should have accepted our invitation,” he smiles.
The journalist recalls that doing the investigation is above all challenging his resilience. “If you have 150 doors closed to you, maybe 151st will be a window to step into and lead you to what you seek to see even further. »