The strike at the end of an era in Europe 1

Audio 02:36

Archive photo taken on November 29, 2018, where the building housing French media including Europe 1 can be seen in Paris.

AFP - PHILIPPE LOPEZ

By: Amaury de Rochegonde Follow

6 mins

We take a look back at the strike that was launched at Europe 1 against the backdrop of a merger with the Bolloré channel, CNews.

Publicity

It is a strike which was decided unanimously, Friday afternoon, by the employees of Europe 1 in order to obtain from their management the annulment of a disciplinary procedure against a journalist.

Originally, the words " 

vehement but not insulting 

", according to his colleagues, made by this journalist to a human resources employee of Europe 1.

Wednesday in general assembly, the man would have been carried away by noting that the words of the GA were recorded by this employee.

He then suspected her of wanting to forward the recording to management.

The inter-union of the station sees in it the " 

latest illustration of an authoritarian management unsuited to work at Europe 1 

", even if the management invokes previous behavior.

This strike where the whole of the station stops work, is "historic" in Europe 1. It is the reflection of an obvious social malaise, since the announcement of the elimination of forty posts out of 200, consecutive to the hearing difficulties of the radio, its financial losses (-26 million euros in 2020).

But it also attests to a deleterious climate since the management announced, in May, wanting to operate synergies with CNews, the continuous information channel of the Canal + group, controlled by Bolloré.

The method of getting rid of journalists in delicacy with their management is also reminiscent of the management in force at Canal +.

Synergy in sight with CNews

On June 30, the group will lose its limited partnership status which prevented shareholders from having control of the station. Bolloré will therefore find itself the largest shareholder in Europe 1 with 27% of Lagardère's capital. The industrialist is keen to bring the station closer to CNews and it is the positioning of the channel " 

on the right, even on the extreme right

 ", as an

employee forum

says

in

Le Monde

, which poses a problem for some employees. It is true that with its columnist Eric Zemmour, who seems to be preparing for a presidential candidacy, CNews is more and more a "chain of opinion".

At Europe 1, we are therefore expecting one of the speakers from CNews, Dimitri Pavlenko, to replace Matthieu Bellard in the morning and it is Sonia Mabrouk, who works on CNews in the afternoon, who will embody the Grand Rendez-Vous in Europe. 1, with

Les Échos

and CNews.

She will replace Michaël Darmon, headed since the start of the school year by a head of the political service from

current values

, Louis de Raguenel.

Five years ago, Michaël Darmon already declared in full strike at iTélé, the ancestor of CNews: " 

For Bolloré, a media has no other role than to serve its interests".

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