A U-turn with the back to the wall. On the eve of what was to be the date of the takeover bid by conservative Catholic billionaire Pierre-Edouard Stérin and three days before the deadline for exclusive negotiations with the CMI group of Czech Daniel Kretinsky, the editorial staff of Marianne finally balked, opposing the sale of the magazine to Mr. Stérin.
Among the weekly’s journalists voting on Thursday evening, June 27, 80% approved the idea of a renewable strike that will begin Friday, June 28 at 6 a.m., two days before the first round of early legislative elections. Its goal? The definitive end of negotiations with Mr. Stérin or the refusal of the buyout offer by the founder of Smartbox.
“The editorial director, Natacha Polony, assured us this evening, shortly after 8 p.m., that the sale was suspended after discussions with Alban du Rostu and Denis Olivennes [les émissaires de MM. Stérin et Kretinsky]. But that doesn’t convince us, we want the sale to stop completely”explained a journalist on condition of anonymity, a few minutes after the strike vote. Contacted about this suspension, Mme Mr Polony, Mr Olivennes and Mr Stérin did not answer our questions.
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers “Marianne”: Jean-François Kahn denounces the planned sale to the Catholic billionaire Pierre-Edouard Stérin
Add to your selections
Less than a week before, however, on Friday June 21, the same editorial staff thought they had settled the question. The journalists of the weekly – created in 1997 by Jean-François Kahn and Maurice Szafran – had answered no to the question “Should the editorial staff oppose the takeover by Pierre-Edouard Stérin, regardless of the guarantees of independence obtained?”with 60.3% of the vote. The majority of journalists thus believed that the guarantees of independence that they had obtained – the approval of its director by the editorial staff and his representation on the future board of directors – would protect the newspaper from possible interference by its future shareholder. A minority group believed that the antagonism between the founding values of the magazine and Mr. Stérin remained too deep.
Links with Marine Le Pen
These are the revelations of MondeWednesday June 26, which changed the situation with the publication of an article demonstrating the links Pierre-Edouard Stérin with Marine Le Pen and the National Rally (RN), through the financier François Durvye, and his intention to support candidates for the legislative elections under the RN-LR banner. “He has been telling us for two months that he is not involved in politics even though he is at the heart of a political project. We find ourselves like rabbits in the headlights of a car”a journalist gets annoyed.
You have 60.44% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
