In this text, employee representatives qualify as "harmful and unacceptable" the decision of the commercial court of Bobigny, responsible for examining the applications to take over the shares of Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT) in La Provence, to postpone sine die l opening of these offers.

"We reiterate our demand to see these offers open without further procrastination, so that employees can choose and that the decisions essential to the sustainability of our company are finally taken", explain the trade unions, from FO to the CGT via the CFDT, SNJ or even CFE-CGC.

"It is completely unthinkable that the judge-commissioner could decide the future of our newspaper without knowing the opinion of the employees on the social aspect and the industrial project", they insist, regretting that the letters in this direction to the commercial court of Bobigny have remained "to this day still unanswered".

"The time has come for the mobilization of all employees," the statement concludes, asking for the meeting of an extraordinary CSE on January 24.

By the deadline of November 30, two takeover files had been submitted to Me Xavier Brouard, the judicial liquidator of the group held by Bernard Tapie until his death: by NJJ, the holding company of Xavier Niel, the founder of the operator of Free telecommunications on the one hand, and by Marseille shipowner CMA-CGM, one of the world giants in the sector, on the other.

Xavier Niel, who already owns 11% of La Provence via NJJ, is also an individual shareholder in Le Monde, as well as owner of Nice-Matin, still via NJJ.

On Tuesday, the Marseille commercial court suspended the shareholders' agreement which offered Xavier Niel, as a minority shareholder, a right of veto over any candidate for the buyout of the 89% of GBT, considering that this approval clause constituted "a manifestly unlawful disorder".

Mr. Niel immediately indicated that he was going to appeal this decision.

The circulation of La Provence, one of the flagship dailies in the South-East of France, has shown a steady decline in recent years, dropping from around 100,000 daily copies in 2017 to around 75,000 today.

The La Provence group also owns the regional daily Corse-Matin.

The companies of Bernard Tapie, the businessman who died in October, have been in compulsory liquidation since 2020 and were ordered to pay around 400 million to the structures managing the liabilities of Crédit Lyonnais.

© 2022 AFP