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French newspaper ‘stunned’ as far-right editor named

One of France's biggest newspapers is in turmoil after the shock appointment of a far-right editor.

French newspaper 'stunned' as far-right editor named
French journalist Geoffroy Lejeune Photo by JOEL SAGET / AFP

Geoffroy Lejeune, just 34, was unveiled last week as the new editor of the influential Journal du Dimanche (JDD), which is the country’s only stand-alone Sunday newspaper, with weekly sales of around 140,000.

News of his nomination by owner Lagardere, recently acquired by conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré, prompted a mass walkout from staff last week which has paralysed the paper and its website – no edition of the paper appeared on Sunday.

“Everyone is in shock, stunned,” one journalist at the paper told AFP on condition of anonymity ahead of the official announcement on Friday.

Lejeune, who is close to several senior far-right political figures, “expresses ideas that are the opposite of the values that the JDD has carried over the last 75 years,” the paper’s union of journalists said in a statement.

Culture Minister Rima Abdul-Malak joined politicians on the left as well as media freedom group Reporters without Borders (RSF) in expressing concern about Lejeune being handed such an important media platform.

“Legally speaking, the JDD can become what it wants, as long as it respects the law,” Abdul-Malak wrote on Twitter on Sunday. “But for our republic’s values, how can you not be alarmed?”

Lejeune’s nomination was described as a “provocation and the demonstration that the far-right is now installing itself calmly in the media” by eight former editors of the newspaper.

They expressed outrage that the identity of the paper was being “erased” by Bolloré.

Lejeune was until recently editor of the far-right weekly Valeurs Actuelles whose profile he helped raise through provocative headlines and caustic attacks on the country’s politicians and intellectuals.

In 2019, around 400 academics criticised the publication in a joint letter after a vicious and highly personal diatribe against Benjamin Stora, a renowned historian of French colonial history who viewed the article as anti-Semitic.

The magazine has also repeatedly targeted Jewish financier George Soros, calling him the “billionaire plotting against France” in a 2018 frontpage headline.

In 2021, the publication was found guilty of racist hate speech after it published a fictional story and cartoons depicting one of the country’s most prominent black MPs as a nude slave in chains and an iron collar.

Lejeune endorsed far-right media commentator Eric Zemmour during his campaign for the presidency last year and is a close friend of Marion Marechal, the niece of far-right patriarch Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Zemmour put the racist conspiracy theory the “great replacement theory” – which posits that white French people are being deliberately replaced by immigrants – at the centre of his error-strewn bid for presidency.

Immigration, crime, alleged left-wing media bias, “woke” teachers, “anti-white” ethnic minorities, as well as the spread of Islamism were common subjects covered by Valeurs Actuelles under Lejeune.

“Save white heterosexual 50-year-old men,” read one of his last front-page headlines in May.

Bolloré, a conservative Catholic from northwest France, has been gradually expanding his empire to take in TV channels, the magazine Paris Match, radio station Europe 1 and latterly the JDD.

After acquiring news channel iTele, he provoked a record strike of 31 days in 2016, gutted most of the staff and turned it into a conservative platform known as CNews, dubbed “France’s Fox News” by critics.

“Bolloré is a specialist in taking an axe to media that he buys,” Christophe Deloire, secretary general of RSF, wrote on Twitter.

Lejeune is also one of a number of journalists, commentators and intellectuals who have helped move hardline views on immigration and Islam into the media mainstream, mirroring the shift in the country’s politics.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen secured her highest ever score in the second round of last year’s presidential election (41.5 percent) and one poll in April showed she would win if the vote were run again.

Many politicians privately admit Le Pen could be France’s next president, while public opinion surveys show that her – and Lejeune’s – views on immigration are broadly supported by most French people.

A poll by the BVA Opinion group for RTL radio in May showed that two-thirds of respondents were “worried” about immigration and the same proportion thought there were too many immigrants in the country.

However, on polls about French voters’ main concerns – immigration trails a long behind more concrete concerns such as the cost of living, healthcare and education.

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POLITICS

Macron warns of ‘civil war’ if far right or hard left win election

President Emmanuel Macron warned that the policies of his far-right and hard-left opponents could lead to ‘civil war’, as France prepared for its most divisive election in decades.

Macron warns of ‘civil war’ if far right or hard left win election

French politics were plunged into turmoil when Macron called snap legislative elections after his centrist party was trounced by the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) in a European vote earlier this month.

Weekend polls suggested the RN would win 35-36 percent in the first round on Sunday, ahead of a left-wing alliance on 27-29.5 percent and Macron’s centrists in third on 19.5-22 percent.

A second round of voting will follow on July 7th in constituencies where no candidate takes more than 50 percent in the first round.

Speaking on the podcast Generation Do It Yourself, Macron, 46, denounced both the RN as well as the hard-left France Unbowed party.

He said the far-right “divides and pushes towards civil war”, while the hard-left La France Insoumise, which is part of the Nouveau Front Populaire alliance, proposes “a form of communitarianism”, adding that “civil war follows on from that, too”.

Reacting to Macron’s comments, far-right leader Jordan Bardella told French news outlet M6: “A President of the Republic should not say that. I want to re-establish security for all French people.”

Bardella, the RN’s 28-year-old president, earlier Monday said his party was ready to govern as he pledged to curb immigration and tackle cost-of-living issues.

“In three words: we are ready,” Bardella told a news conference as he unveiled the RN’s programme.

READ ALSO What would a far-right prime minister mean for foreigners in France?

Bardella has urged voters to give the eurosceptic party an outright majority to allow it to implement its anti-immigration, law-and-order programme.

“Seven long years of Macronism has weakened the country,” he said, vowing to boost purchasing power, “restore order” and change the law to make it easier to deport foreigners convicted of crimes.

He reiterated plans to tighten borders and make it harder for children born in France to foreign parents to gain citizenship.

Bardella added that the RN would focus on “realistic” measures to curb inflation, primarily by cutting energy taxes.

He also promised a disciplinary ‘big bang’ in schools, including a ban on mobile phones and trialling the introduction of school uniforms, a proposal previously put forward by Macron.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal of Macron’s Renaissance party poured scorn on the RN’s economic programme, telling Europe 1 radio the country was “headed straight for disaster” in the event of an RN victory.

On Tuesday, Attal will go head-to-head with Bardella and the leftist Manuel Bompard in a TV debate.

On foreign policy, Bardella said the RN opposed sending French troops and long-range missiles to Ukraine – as mooted by Macron – but would continue to provide logistical and material support.

He added that his party, which had close ties to Russia before its invasion of Ukraine, would be “extremely vigilant” in the face of Moscow’s attempts to interfere in French affairs.

Macron insisted that France would continue to support Ukraine over the long term as he met with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.

“We will continue to mobilise to respond to Ukraine’s immediate needs,” he said alongside Stoltenberg at the Elysee Palace.

The election is shaping up as a showdown between the RN and the leftist Nouveau Front Populaire, which is dominated by the hard-left La France Insoumise.

Bardella claimed the RN, which mainstream parties have in the past united to block, was now the “patriotic and republican” choice faced with what he alleged was the anti-Semitism of Mélenchon’s party.

La France Insoumise, which opposes Israel’s war in Gaza and refused to label the October 7th Hamas attacks as ‘terrorism’, denies the charges of anti-Semitism.

In calling an election in just three weeks Macron hoped to trip up his opponents and catch them unprepared.

But analysts have warned the move could backfire if the deeply unpopular president is forced to share power with a prime minister from an opposing party.

RN powerhouse Marine Le Pen, who is bidding to succeed Macron as president, has called on him to step aside if he loses control of parliament.

Macron has insisted he will not resign before the end of his second term in 2027 but has vowed to heed voters’ concerns.

Speaking on Monday, Macron once again defended his choice to call snap elections.

“It’s very hard. I’m aware of it, and a lot of people are angry with me,” he said on the podcast. “But I did it because there is nothing greater and fairer in a democracy than trust in the people.”

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