The report that doesn’t work. Philippe de Villiers, founder of Puy du Fou, filed a defamation complaint against France Télévisions. At issue: an article and a program on the “tremendous cash machine” that would be the Vendée amusement park. This “Additional investigation” entitled “History, money, power: the real secrets of Puy du Fou” had been broadcast on France 2 on September 7, accompanied by an article published on the France Info website summarizing the synopsis. The complaint was filed on October 19 with the Paris judicial court on behalf of Philippe de Villiers and the Puy du Fou Stratégie association.
The complainants criticize the article, still online, for having reported the comments of a volunteer who maintained that “Puy du Fou, which belonged to the volunteers, now belongs to a single family and that we have moved from ‘a collective property to a family property’. The complaint also targets the comments made in the television investigation assuring that “the Villiers will find a stratagem, they will discreetly lock up the capital of the Grand Parc and its tens of millions of euros in turnover”.
A non-mercantile work
“Even though he never received the slightest income of any kind, Philippe de Villiers is accused of not only lying about his disinterestedness and his intentions but of manipulating the Puyfolais and exploiting their voluntary work to enrich themselves, personally,” denounces their lawyer Me Gilles-William Goldnadel in the complaint. The defense of the former senior civil servant and sovereignist politician, who wrote the scenarios shows, maintains that “from 1977, Philippe de Villiers formulated commitments of disinterestedness” and “that the Puy du Fou presents itself and is recognized as a non-mercantile work”.
The complaint states that “the intellectual property of scenarios is transferred by donation, on May 16, 2012, to the Puy du Fou Stratégie association, a non-profit organization” and that “Puy du Fou is enriched with all the intangible funds thus provided”.
A possible trial before the 17th chamber of the Paris criminal court could be held within one to two years, depending on hearing deadlines.