Paris (AFP)
The list of departures is growing at Europe 1: journalist Patrick Cohen, who joined the Lagardère group radio in 2017, confirmed to AFP on Monday that he was going to leave the station, as several media reported.
The daily Le Parisien had announced on its site that the departure of the presenter of "Europe Midi" was practically acquired, then the specialized site Puremedias had then announced that it was "recorded", by "mutual agreement" with the management from the radio.
The journalist confirmed to AFP his departure, without commenting.
Recruited in 2017 to straighten out the audiences for the morning of Europe 1, the former star of France Inter had been replaced after a season, failing to succeed.
After having hosted shows on weekends, he had found a daily meeting, "Europe Midi", at the start of the 2020 school year.
Last week, Patrick Cohen had criticized in barely veiled terms the editorial line of CNews, the Canal + group's news channel with which Europe 1 wants to get closer.
During a rally against the "growing hold" of billionaire Vincent Bolloré (main shareholder of Canal + and Lagardère) on Europe 1, he warned against a model consisting in creating "fractures, to erect part of France against the other, including by appeals to hatred "judged" by the courts ".
According to Le Parisien, Europe 1 could call on a journalist from CNews, Romain Desarbres (presenter of the morning news channel), to replace him.
Patrick Cohen joins the already long list of voices from Europe 1 who have or will leave the station, pushed towards the exit or of their own accord, including the morning speaker Matthieu Belliard, Pascale Clark, Anne Roumanoff, Wendy Bouchard, Jimmy Mohamed, Emilie Mazoyer (who confirmed to Télérama having "decided to leave"), columnist Bertrand Chameroy ...
At the same time, several CNews figures, including Dimitri Pavlenko and Laurence Ferrari, will join the station grid at the start of the 2021 school year.
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