Louise Bernard 11:48 a.m., June 13, 2022, modified at 11:54 a.m., June 13, 2022
The anti-Mélenchon cover of "Challenges" creates a stir within the editorial staff.
The magazine's journalists denounce the cover which, according to them, is a copy of that devoted to Marine Le Pen between the two rounds of the presidential election.
They evoke a "passage in force".
A red cover with large and capital letters: "Danger!".
A photo of Jean-Luc Mélenchon below and a list of the risks incurred if he were to win the legislative elections.
What embarrasses the writing is that this front page makes direct reference to that produced during the presidential election by
Challenges
.
But at the time, she warned of the consequences of a victory for Marine Le Pen.
The editorial staff objected to the cover
More than a reference, it is even a copy on the form.
Only the color changes (the front page was black).
We find the same "Danger!"
which appears at the top... A photo of the candidate was in the same place on the page.
And a list of risks too, which is very similar to this week's.
On that of Le Pen: "Deficit + 100 billion".
That of Mélenchon: "Deficit + 203 billion".
Le Pen: "Europe Dislocated."
Mélenchon: "Destabilized Europe".
And so on.
This is what makes the magazine's society of journalists jump.
She denounces a "forced passage" of management.
Because the editorial staff had, according to her, opposed this coverage.
At
Challenges
, it is the directors of the publication, editorial director and the main shareholder and director of the newspaper who have the last word on the front page.
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What bothers the society of journalists is to put Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen on the same level.
Because the program of the RN candidate "breaks with the Declaration of Human Rights".
That of Jean-Luc Mélenchon "is part of the republican framework and includes the Socialist Party and Europe Écologie-Les Verts".
A "partisan media taking up the arguments of the presidential majority"
She regrets that
Challenges
therefore passes for "partisan media by taking up the arguments of the presidential majority, and discredits the work of an independent editorial staff".
The SDJ also specifies that it is not the “substance of the articles of the file which is in question, but the only coverage”.
The director of publication Vincent Beaufils justified this choice to put Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen on the same level.
He writes, in an editorial inside the newspaper, "in terms of the prosperity of France, which is our subject here, the projects of Nupes are largely as devastating as those of the RN".