“Are you questioning my competence? Would I be the subject of a contract between two men to carry out my function? I don’t accept this, it goes too far! » We do not slam the door on a parliamentary commission of inquiry. For a moment, however, on Thursday March 21 at the end of the afternoon, we thought that the hearing of Rachida Dati by the deputies of the commission on DTT frequency allocations was going to come to an end.
From the first question from rapporteur Aurélien Saintoul (La France insoumise, LFI, Hauts-de-Seine), the temperature rose a notch. What does the Minister of Culture know about the reasons for the ousting of her predecessor? “It’s a curious question,” Rachida Dati was immediately suspicious. A little over a year ago, Rima Abdul-Malak was violently accused of putting pressure on the Audiovisual and Digital Regulatory Authority (Arcom) so that it would think twice before giving C8 and CNews new broadcasting authorizations.
His circumspection towards the Vivendi group’s channels, via Canal+, may, it is said, cost him his job. “What political decision that Rima Abdul-Malak would not have taken”, And that Rachida Dati would take, would explain this change of minister? slipped the chosen one, more precise in his questioning but still too elliptical. “I’m not going to go where you’re going with this,” the minister rebuffed again.
Aurélien Saintoul, for his part, really wanted to go “there”, even if it meant taking the most uneven path, paved with cryptic insinuations about his appointment (which could have been arranged between Emmanuel Macron and Vincent Bolloré), and allusions to interviews given by Rachida Dati at Sunday newspaper, to Europe 1 and CNews. Achieving nothing other than a deadlock, the deputy had his microphone temporarily taken away by the president of the commission, Quentin Bataillon (Renaissance, Loire), very angry at this “negative climate” and from this “common tension” provoked by his colleague.
Between the two deputies, the antagonisms are becoming more and more acute. Aurélien Saintoul never stops tracking the damage that Vincent Bolloré would cause on the media and democratic space via CNews and C8, while Quentin Bataillon does everything possible to see “Vincent Bolloré [son nom et son ombre] leave this room ».
“Independence cannot be decreed, it is proven”
When MP Saintoul resumed his questions at the end of the session, the quibbles with the minister vaguely started again, a little in vain, giving the feeling that the commission of inquiry is starting to go in circles. Thus, those summoned now approach their hearings with the main concern of extinguishing the accusations or doubts sown by their predecessors in the room.
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