“We will therefore do everything in our power to preserve your activity. In a letter addressed to the director of L’Écume des pages, bookstore in the 6th arrondissement, and of which 20 minutes was able to learn, Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris, opposes frontally to Vincent Bolloré.
This Tuesday, our colleagues from World revealed that the French industrialist’s Vivendi group is entered into exclusive negotiations for two months with the company L’Expansion scientifique française, which owns 100% of the capital of the independent bookstore.
Books by Éric Zemmour soon on display?
If the acquisition remains subject to several conditions precedent, the group has already made an offer of 4.5 million euros to the heirs of the Besançon family, owners of the business of the bookstore located on Boulevard Saint-Germain. An offer already revised upwards after that of a competitor friend of the current director Loïc Ducroquet, still according to the daily.
In view of the transformation of the media acquired by Vincent Bolloré, the latest of which, The JDDemployees fear seeing the books of Éric Zemmour fill the window and the shelves of this cultural icon of the Saint-Germain district founded in the 1980s.
Anne Hidalgo takes action
Alerted to the situation, Anne Hidalgo sent a letter of support to Loïc Ducroquet where
she warns of “the uncertainty about the continuation of [votre] activity “. A risk “all the higher with regard to known potential buyers, whose activity is today very far from that of independent bookstores”. A direct reference to the activities of the new owner of the Hachette publishing house, without having to quote him directly.
But the mayor of Paris is not content to publicly express her support. Indeed, it announces to take action: “At my request, the mixed economy company – current SEMAEST and future SEM “Paris Commerce” – and the services of the City are studying all possible avenues aimed at maintaining your activity, essential both to Parisian intellectual life and to the influence of Paris. »
The city councilor adds that he has instructed his assistants for Culture and Commerce, Carine Rolland and Olivia Polski, to meet Loïc Ducroquet before insisting on his mobilization: “So know that the city will provide you with all the necessary support and stands by your sides so that ”L’Écume des Pages” remains the bookstore it is today…”