After the resignation of Patrick Cohen from Radio France, Sibyle Veil struggles to reassure the employees of Franceinfo

“Discussions were underway, but they were not over. » On Wednesday May 31, at 11 a.m., the CEO of Radio France, Sibyle Veil, appeared in front of a compact crowd of Franceinfo employees to try to put out the fire that has been raging there since May 26. That evening, Patrick Cohen announced to the World resign from Radio France – where he presented every Sunday “The Public Spirit”, on France Culture, since September 2021 – after being promised, then withdrawn, the presentation of the morning at the start of the school year.

Between these two decisions: the return from vacation of Laurence Bloch, director of antennas and editorial strategy, which would have invalidated this choice and, thus, forced the CEO to reconsider the word given to the former morning worker of Inter (between 2010 and 2017). A scenario that the leader tried to deny, just after having regretted that it had aroused comments reported in various articles: “Unpacking in the press serves our house”she protested.

“Asked whether she had indeed welcomed Patrick, she answered in an embarrassed way, without saying ‘yes’ or ‘no'”, says all the same one of those present at the meeting (the people quoted whose name does not appear wished to remain anonymous). One moment “hypertensive”full of “defiance”, but also of a “emotion” fed with “feeling of humiliation and contempt”reports another. “There is a desire to prevent us from having the best for Franceinfo”launched a voice from the antenna.

“No sense in establishing a Franceinfo-France Inter war”

Monday, May 29, a press release from the society of journalists “hoped” already that Patrick Cohen had not been “discarded because it was too good for the air, or for reasons of personal revenge”. “We all do a lot for Franceinfo with a lot less resources than Inter, and there, we see it very, very badly”protested another journalist, to the applause of her colleagues.

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Mercato at France Inter: Charline Vanhoenacker stops her daily show, Marc Fauvelle returns

Tactic, Sibyle Veil not only explained that there would be “no sense in initiating a war between Franceinfo and France Inter”but she recalled the character ” essestial “ of the station, whose morning service will soon be reinforced by the hiring (already announced) of two full-time equivalents. Determined to go beyond the episode to project herself into the sequel, “She insisted on the fact that Marc Fauvelle had rejuvenated the audience of Franceinfo and that it was necessary to continue in this way, while Patrick Cohen, sixty years old, did not embody the future”summarizes a frame of the station.

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