Journal du Dimanche employees begin their 13th day of strike in Paris on July 5, 2023 (AFP/Alain JOCARD)
War of attrition at the JDD, where the strike will prevent the publication of the newspaper for the third Sunday in a row: the editorial staff is still opposed to the appointment at its head of the journalist marked on the far right Geoffroy Lejeune, but the direction remain inflexible.
“The deadlock situation continues,” breathes a journalist from the JDD (Sunday newspaper) who wishes to remain anonymous.
The strike began on June 22 and has entered its third week. It was renewed for 24 hours on Friday, at 95% (92 for, five against, seven do not decide), according to the SDJ (Society of Journalists) of the JDD.
According to a member of the editorial staff, this will prevent the publication of the newspaper for the third consecutive Sunday, which is historic. The previous strike, in 2016, affected only one.
The JDD site is frozen on June 22: there is not a word about the riots, which started five days later and made the headlines of all the rest of the press.
Sign of a situation that is getting bogged down, the SDJ repeated word for word the terms of the previous days in its press release on Friday.
– “Deaf” –
“The Lagardère group (which owns the newspaper, editor’s note) must renounce this appointment and must provide the editorial staff with legal and editorial guarantees”, she insisted in her daily press release.
Journalist Geoffroy Lejeune, September 28, 2020 in Paris (AFP/Archives/JOEL SAGET)
These are “two demands to which management has remained deaf so far, preferring to impose the arrival of Geoffroy Lejeune”, lamented the SDJ, while internally, the shortfall is estimated at one million euros. win driven at this point by the newspaper’s non-appearance.
Former director of the weekly Current Values, supporter of the far-right candidate Eric Zemmour for the 2022 presidential election, Mr. Lejeune should have met the editorial staff of the JDD on Wednesday but the latter refused.
Even if Arnaud Lagardère, the boss of the group, denies it, many observers see in this appointment the hand of billionaire Vincent Bolloré, with opinions deemed ultra-conservative.
It comes indeed just after the green light given under conditions by the European Commission to Vivendi, the group of Mr. Bolloré, to swallow Lagardère, which is however not yet effective.
Despite the stalemate, “there is no dejection, we want to fight”, assures AFP the journalist of the JDD, describing a writing “very united, even if it is exhausting”.
– “Puppeteer” –
“We say to ourselves that if the management, Arnaud Lagardère and his puppeteer Vincent Bolloré, remain stubborn, perhaps Geoffroy Lejeune will say to himself that he cannot arrive in a 95% hostile editorial staff”, hopes- he.
In recent years, other media that have fallen into Bolloré’s orbit have gone on strike: iTélé in 2016 (for 31 days and with strong media coverage) then Europe 1 in 2021.
But the strikers had not won their case, obtaining only initial plans which had largely emptied the editorial staff.
Arnaud Lagardère, CEO of the Lagardère group, on February 17, 2022 in Paris (AFP / JULIEN DE ROSA)
“You are facing a steamroller who tells you: + We give you money and you leave, we do what we want +”, sighs a former Europe 1.
“I think it’s going to happen the same way at the JDD. Everyone is waiting for a lifeline to be able to get out,” he prophesies, disillusioned.
“If it’s Geoffroy Lejeune or us and in the end it’s him, it’s something to think about. But we’re not there yet,” tempers the JDD journalist.
The editorial staff received a lot of support on the left and in the profession. But “we would like to be defended more by the government and by LR”, he regrets.
In his eyes, this “shows the power of Vincent Bolloré: they are afraid of grilling themselves with him”.
© 2023 AFP
Did you like this article ? Share it with your friends with the buttons below.
