The two writers failed to gather the absolute majority of the 25 voters to take their place in Jean-Loup Dabadie’s chair.
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- The writers Frédéric Beigbeder and Benoît Duteurtre clashed this Thursday for a seat at the French Academy, but were both rejected (illustration image).
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Lhe writers Frédéric Beigbeder and Benoît Duteurtre were both rejected Thursday, November 3 during an election to the French Academy when they each hoped to rejuvenate this assembly. None of the candidates succeeded in gathering an absolute majority of the 25 voters during the 4 ballots. This is the second consecutive time that a “white election” has taken place on chair 19, previously occupied by the writer Jean-Loup Dabadie, but also Boileau, Chateaubriand, Paul Deschanel or René Clair.
Benoît Duteurtre, 62, who had submitted his candidacy at the end of June, was the favorite. While he needed 13 votes, he got 11 in the first and fourth rounds, and 10 in the second and third rounds. Frédéric Beigbeder, 57, who posed as a rival in mid-October, gathered less. After 7 votes in the first round, it climbed to 9 in the second, before getting 8 in the third and fourth.
Between these two men of the same generation, it is a “fratricidal joust”, wrote Le Figaro when the second had launched. “They risk neutralizing each other,” said one of the academicians interviewed by the daily, on condition of anonymity. A prediction that turned out to be correct. Both were penalized by white (1 in the first round), and white marked with a cross (4 in the first and second rounds, then 5).
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Five chairs remain to be filled at the French Academy
Another white election in May resulted in the failure of two journalists, Franz-Olivier Giesbert and Olivier Barrot. The two did not immediately re-apply, but may still do so later. Seven other candidates presented themselves on Thursday. Eduardo Pisani, singer under the name Eduardo, got a vote at every turn for his 17e candidacy. He is trying to beat Émile Zola’s record, failed 25 times.
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The poet Éric Dubois got one vote in the first three rounds, then none in the last. There are still four other seats to be filled at the French Academy, on a date yet to be determined. The election to the French Academy allows him to sit until the end of his days in an assembly founded in 1635 with the mission of defending the French language and writing a dictionary. Its members are therefore keen to choose academicians with whom they are sure to get on well over the long term.
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The institution, whose prestige has declined in recent decades, is the target of much criticism for its conservatism and lack of expertise in judging language issues.