“This is the second time that the Sunday newspaper does not appear because of a strike”, explains a journalist from the JDD, whose editorial team has been mobilized since the announcement of the arrival of Geoffroy Lejeune as editorial director, replacing Jérôme Béglé. After several days of movement against a backdrop of uncertainty, a face-to-face meeting is expected this Tuesday between a “resolved writing” not to let go and a management of Lagardère which does not seem to be about to bend. “It’s going to be quite tense,” anticipates the journalist.
The appointment of the former managing editor of Current values, a far-right magazine with very conservative ideas, coincides with the rise of Vincent Bolloré at Lagardère for several months. So far, the JDD had been rather spared. “It’s Europe 1 and Paris Match who started to morfler, we were rather sheltered, ”explains the same journalist to 20 minutes. Even if he denies it, Vincent Bolloré has been accused for several years of placing his pawns of the reactionary right in the media he controls (C8, CNews, Europe 1, Paris Match and now the JDD) to promote his views. Remember that the absorption by Vivendi of Lagardère was authorized by the European Commission two weeks ago.
No one remembers him at the “Point”
Lagardère press release published on June 23 details the CV of Geoffroy Lejeune. “After starting his career at Point in 2009, he was recruited by Current Values of which he became editor-in-chief of the political department in 2015 before being appointed editorial director in 2016 at only 27 years old, becoming the youngest French editorial director”. First problem: Geoffroy Lejeune who, let us remember, was ousted from Current values for its positions deemed too partisan (pro-Zemmourian) and too right-wing, left no memory for the drafting of the Point. “He didn’t start his career there, do we breathe 20 minuteshe did an observation internship in 2010”, of which there remains only a short brief signed with his initials about Bruno Gollnisch.
At JDD, Geoffroy Lejeune, claimed friend of Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, should be accompanied by his former collaborator Charlotte d’Ornellas. This figure of the reactionary right resigned from Current values when Geoffroy Lejeune was ousted. “I will not be able to stay in this newspaper, it is impossible”, she was moved last week on the set of Time for the pros on CNews, presented by Pascal Praud, himself a great support of the young journalist close to Eric Zemmour.
The psychoanalyst Gérard Miller who has often debated with Geoffroy Lejeune on LCI describes him as “a patte-pelu”, a term borrowed from the fable The Cat and the Fox de La Fontaine which means hypocrite. “These are people whose way of acting is sweet and flattering and they use it for terrible purposes. I debated with Lejeune for two years, he is an amiable, well-bred young man who would be given the good Lord without confession. He is able to say the worst horrors with the appearance of someone measured, ”describes the former columnist of Laurent Ruquier. And to continue: “I met all the tenors of the far right, he is a bit apart. He is part of a generation of far-right young people who want to be second degree, which is why he is close to Gaspard Proust. They don’t want to present themselves as what they are, they are activists with a new look”.
“Activists with a new look”
“Geoffroy Lejeune, he, “historically supported the very conservative right with François-Xavier Bellamy (currently vice-president of LR), then Eric Zemmour in a very strong way, so it is not support for the National Rally ” , recalled RN deputy Jean-Philippe Tanguy on Sunday on France Inter. The relationship was notoriously execrable between the Lepenists and Current Values during the last presidential campaign. And the pro-Zemmour turn that Geoffroy Lejeune will make Current values during the last presidential election will tumble the title. “Between 2021 and 2022, it lost 10% of its approximately 100,000 subscribers, half of its online visitors – falling from four million to two million -, saw advertising melt and the decline in newsstand sales”, writes The world.
On the side of JDD, see the arrival of this thirty-year-old who has only one line on his CV – that of Current values – creates panic. Arnaud Lagardère claims to be the sole decision maker. In an interview at Figaro this Monday, the newspaper’s shareholder said that the appointment of Geoffroy Lejeune was an “economic choice and not at all ideological”. Translation: Vincent Bolloré would have nothing to do with it. In the meantime, the strike has been voted and renewed since Thursday and until Wednesday, with the quasi-unanimity of the drafting of the JDD. “We have two demands: the abandonment of this appointment and the establishment of the legal independence of the editorial staff”, insists the journalist. A right of veto for the editorial staff on the appointment of the managing editor as is practiced in the World. Two requests, for the time being, dismissed by the shareholder. Contacted by 20 minutesneither the management of Lagardère nor Geoffroy Lejeune took action.