At the end of March, the designer Plantu will leave "Le Monde", a newspaper with which he had collaborated for 49 years and a first drawing published in 1972. The designer explains in "Culture Médias", at the microphone of Philippe Vandel, that he had been trying to get away from everyday life for 10 years but did not want the drawing to disappear with him.

Did you know the front pages 

of Plantu's

Le Monde

sans dessin?

If so, it is because you read the daily before 1972. Or that you read this article after March 2021. After 49 years of collaboration, the 70-year-old cartoonist is indeed leaving the newspaper at the end of the month.

Guest of the 

Culture Médias program

, on Europe 1, Plantu explains to Philippe Vandel's microphone the reasons for his departure.

A retirement from the 

World 

that he had been trying to obtain for more than 10 years.

But one thing held him back: the fear that the privileged place of the press cartoon in the evening paper would disappear with him.

>> Find Philippe Vandel and Culture-Médias every day from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Europe 1 as well as in replay and podcast here

"I'm on my fourth or fifth director to whom I ask which designer he plans to put my place when I leave. I was afraid of being the guy who hangs on," he explains.

"But I didn't want to be replaced by an ad or a photo of Angela Merkel serving as Macron's tongs."

Replaced by an association of designers

A condition which explains why the designer stayed 10 years longer.

"Little by little, we really agreed to make sure that we could see drawings of

Cartooning for peace

", specifies Plantu, citing the association of press cartoonists that he created with the former United Nations Secretary Kofi Annan.

It is therefore a whole group of cartoonists who will soon come to take over from Plantu in

Le Monde

.

"On Monday, there will be a Venezuelan, on Tuesday a Russian, on Wednesday an Algerian, according to the news of the day," promises the designer.

Plantu's last sketch in 

Le Monde 

will be published in the newspaper dated Thursday April 1, distributed Wednesday March 31 at the end of the day in Paris and in several major cities, and available throughout France the following day.