“Let’s dare! ». When, in 1993, the president of France Télévisions, Jean-Pierre Elkabbach, urged his channel directors to be bold, he probably did not imagine that he would be heard until after his death. Thursday October 5, just 36 hours after the death of her distant predecessor at the head of the public audiovisual group (1993-1996), Delphine Ernotte-Cunci announced that “the main Parisian building”in the 15e district, would henceforth bear the name of “Jean-Pierre Elkabbach House”. An idea born, we explain to France TV, “in the emotion of the moment” and tributes which rained down on the news channels upon the announcement of his death on Tuesday evening.
The idea did not displease Emmanuel Macron since at the invitation of Mme Ernotte, specifies the Elysée, the President of the Republic will preside over the ceremony which will take place Monday morning, at 9 a.m. The Head of State must deliver a speech and unveil a commemorative plaque, which will subsequently be placed on the building on the Boulevard du Général-Martial-Vallin side (the pedestrian entrance).
“They dared!” »
“They dared!” “, France TV’s CGT unit quickly took offense. “Many employees believed it was a bad joke, a gag worthy of Info Guignolsand everything came to the surface »writes the union, which lists the reasons which should have prevented Delphine Ernotte from making such a decision.
As a reminder, the leader had to resign from his post, six months before the end of his mandate and at the end of a month of a violent controversy remembered as the scandal of “potato thieves”. Under his presidency, the animators-producers (Jean-Luc Delarue, Nagui, Michel Drucker, Mireille Dumas, Arthur and Jacques Martin) had benefited from excessively juicy contracts, severely condemned by the Court of Auditors in their conditions of attribution as in their purpose – “the enrichment of interested companies”.
The President of the Republic was looking for a way to pay tribute to the “great political journalist, as he was able to pay tribute to Johnny Hallyday or Charles Aznavour”, justifies France Télévisions, or even to Jean Daniel or Jean d’Ormesson, adds the Elysée. But greet “Bolloré’s special advisor, the enemy of the press! »does not go to the SNJ of France Télévisions – after having bounced back to Europe 1, Jean-Pierre Elkabbach ended his career on the conservative channel CNews. “In the best case scenario, I will have my name posted on the door of a TV or radio studio,” anticipated the journalist in a portrait published in 2017 in Release. Without imagining that it would trigger a final controversy.