Thomas Legrand suspended by France-Inter after controversial remarks to PS officials: "Not a coffee with friends"
By The New Obs with AFP
Thomas Legrand, left, made comments considered partisan during an informal meeting with Socialist Party officials in a Parisian restaurant. IMAGES "L'INCORRECT"
France-Inter announced on the evening of Friday, September 5, that its columnist Thomas Legrand had been suspended from broadcasting after a video was broadcast showing him making controversial remarks targeting the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, in front of Socialist Party officials. During this exchange, revealed by the far-right monthly "L'Incorrect," Thomas Legrand, also a journalist at Libération, declared: "We are doing what is necessary for Dati, Patrick (Cohen) and me," meaning against her in her race for mayor of Paris, for which she is a candidate. According to the newspaper, the video was filmed in July, without the participants' knowledge, in a Parisian restaurant.
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"We have decided to suspend Thomas Legrand from the airwaves as a precautionary measure. He will not be on air this Sunday," France Inter responded. Patrick Cohen, also a columnist on France Inter and France Télévisions, is also at the table alongside the Secretary General of the Socialist Party, Pierre Jouvet, and the President of the Socialist Party National Council, Luc Broussy. The four men share their analyses of the political situation during this informal meeting, for example, imagining a second round between RN figure Marine Le Pen and Place Publique leader Raphaël Glucksmann in the 2027 presidential election.
"The opposite of a conspiratorial meeting"Rachida Dati, nominated as the Republican candidate for mayor of Paris, called for action against the two columnists. "Public service journalists and Libération claim to be doing what is necessary to eliminate me from the Paris election. These are serious and unethical comments that could lead to sanctions. Everyone must now take responsibility," she responded on X.
On Friday evening, however, Thomas Legrand denied to AFP the intention attributed to him. "My job is to combat Ms. Dati's lies and her attitude towards the press. I'm not fighting her politically," he said. The journalist did not wish to comment on his suspension by France Inter. L'Incorrect, founded in 2017 by Marion Maréchal's close associates, presents itself as "conservative" and advocates a "union of the right."
"This meeting was the complete opposite of a conspiratorial gathering," Patrick Cohen protested to "Le Monde" this Saturday. "This meeting was not a coffee among friends ," Thomas Legrand added, interviewed by the daily. "Luc Broussy, with whom I communicate regularly, and Pierre Jouvet, whom I did not know, had requested this coffee to reproach us for not being nice, in our articles and editorials, to Olivier Faure," the national secretary of the Socialist Party.
Van Reeth wants to "protect the channel""It's true that Patrick [Cohen] in his editorials or I in mine were journalistically concerned with Rachida Dati," he admits. The Minister of Culture, a candidate for mayor of Paris, was notably sent to trial on July 22 for corruption and influence peddling, suspected of having received 900,000 euros between 2010 and 2012 for consulting services with a subsidiary of the Renault-Nissan alliance but without having actually worked, while she was a lawyer and a member of the European Parliament. She has appealed the decision.
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