INTERVIEW
"I've been thinking about this for a few months." Guest of Culture Médias , Tuesday on Europe 1, Laurent Joffrin returned to a decision that has caused much ink to flow: the one he took in mid-July to leave the leadership of Liberation to launch his political movement. At 68, including 43 with a press card, the journalist defends "ideas" to be implemented: "I have always had the political culture of the democratic left."
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"Participate in a strategy that seems to me the only one possible"
"I have read hundreds of articles on the theme: the classic left, the reformist left, the left which acts, in short the left which governs is dead", says Laurent Joffrin to justify his choice. "I read a lot of it, it got on my nerves. (...) I thought it was not enough to write articles. I had an influence: the letter that I write (political, in Liberation, Editor's note ) is read by a lot of people, and I had a lot of feedback. But it is about moving to a concrete influence, not only on the minds. To participate in a construction, in a strategy which seems to me the only possible so that the left wins, that is to say that its reformist wing is refounded. "
As for the criticisms on the porosity between journalism and politics, which his shift would illustrate, Laurent Joffrin defends a "critical sense" preserved, according to him, throughout his career. "Three months after the victory of François Hollande (to whom he is close, editor's note ), the Observer (which he led at the time, editor's note ) titled: 'Are they so bad?'. It wasn't very nice. I was the first columnist to condemn the measure on the nationality of Holland, precisely ", he abounds.
Journalists and politicians "are people who see each other," said the columnist. "A journalist who wants to have information on political life, if he does not see politicians, he sucks. (...) But it is not at all the same logic, the logic of a newspaper or radio is to please its readers or listeners. The logic of a politician is to have a career, they are two completely different things. "
Chronicles in Liberation ? "We will see"
His decision taken, Laurent Joffrin assures us, however, that he did not hesitate to leave the direction of his newspaper: "When you are a journalist, you are not supposed to be partisan. So it is incompatible." However, the editorialist says he wants to "continue writing". Where, insofar as the editorial staff of Liberation indicated, by the voice of its Society of Journalists, no longer wish it to be published in the columns of the daily? "We'll see," he replies. "Subjective chronicles, positions, there are in all the newspapers. It will be discussed at the start of the school year, I will do the best for the interests of Liberation ."
And for those his friend François Hollande? "It's premature. Do you know someone who is in a position to say: I will be the candidate? I don't know any." Two years from the next presidential election, the one whose Engagé.es movement claims a thousand supporters says he wants to talk about substance. "The ideas and the strategy have to be cleared up first, for the moment that is not the case." And to specify, as for his own situation: "I am not a candidate for any elective mandate."