"The employees are in union to ask (...) their participation in this transfer", which cannot be carried out "without their adhesion, but for that we need the information", pleaded Me Catherine Szwarc, one of the two lawyers employees, during a press conference at the newspaper's headquarters in Marseille.

"We are told that it would be a transfer by mutual agreement and that the only important element would be the price of the transfer, except that it is in fact a transfer of the company and its subsidiaries, with a significant social impact", added his colleague, Me Elise Brand, referring to the 800 jobs at stake. "But we have no information on the evolution of this file", underlined the lawyer.

By the November 30 deadline, two takeover files had been submitted to Me Xavier Brouard, the liquidator of the group held by Bernard Tapie until his death: by NJJ, the holding company of Xavier Niel, the operator's founder of telecommunications Free on the one hand, and by the 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 of Le Monde, as well as owner of Nice-Matin, still via NJJ.

On November 11, the Commercial Court of Marseille suspended the shareholders' pact which offered a right of veto to Xavier Niel, as a minority shareholder, on any candidate for the acquisition of 89% of GBT (Bernard Tapie Group).

A decision appealed by Mr. Niel.

The date of the examination of this call is not known, nor that of the opening of the offers.

"Getting out of the rut"

“On January 20, we learned of the appointment of a new co-liquidator, which suggests that one track is to relaunch a new call for tenders,” said Mr. Brand on Wednesday.

"And this time, it is out of the question that employees stay away and cannot participate in its drafting."

"The objective of the CSEs of employees, of unions, is to be able to influence the content of the offers themselves", she insisted: "Wages, statutes, working conditions, working conditions maintenance of employment, must be able to be put on the table and discussed.

"For five years, there has been no investment (...) it's the most total inertia (...), we have to get out of the rut", urged a representative of the National Union journalists (SNJ), during this same press conference, insisting on the need to give a perspective to the group, owner of the newspaper La Provence but also of Corse Matin.

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

The paid distribution of Corse-Matin is 25,000 daily copies on average, according to the Alliance for press and media figures.

The paid circulation of Corse-Matin is 25,000 daily copies on average, according to the Alliance for press and media figures PASCAL POCHARD-CASABIANCA AFP / Archives

In a press release on Wednesday, the SNJ and STC unions of Corse-Matin indicated that they had filed conclusions, at the beginning of January, with the Commercial Court of Bobigny, responsible for the liquidation of GBT, in order to request the "rapid" opening of the offers. .

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

© 2022 AFP