This crisis has been brewing since the departure in March of general manager Sophie de Closets.

She remained for eight years the patroness of this renowned house, founded in 1857.

The announcement on Monday of the name of her successor, Isabelle Saporta, precipitated these departures.

They come as the parent company of Fayard editions, Hachette, is in the process of coming under the control of Vivendi, the group of billionaire Vincent Bolloré.

"Sophie de Closets did not leave Fayard of her own free will," essayist and novelist Jacques Attali told AFP on Friday.

For him, the choice was simple.

"I arrived at Fayard following Claude Durand who became my best friend. I was then very happy with the arrival of Sophie. I will follow her wherever she goes", he explained.

Essayist and novelist Jacques Attali in Paris on May 7, 2022 GONZALO FUENTES POOL / AFP / Archives

"Independence under threat"

Journalist Fabrice Lhomme described Mme de Closets as "the best editor in Paris".

With his colleague from the daily Le Monde Gérard Davet, they are also leaving.

"Our editorial independence, which is so dear to us and has always been total, is clearly threatened," wrote the two men in a registered letter to Ms. Saporta, sent to AFP.

These two investigative journalists did not support Mrs. Saporta's sympathy for former President Nicolas Sarkozy, the subject of several of their works, who accuses them of having paid sources.

"It's totally false. And Isabelle Saporta has seriously implicated us by peddling this rumour. Some have a hard life, from the moment we talk to them", declared Mr. Lhomme to AFP.

The most resounding departure for Fayard is that of the novelist Virginie Grimaldi, announced on Tuesday.

"My values ​​and beliefs are no longer in line with the direction the house is taking," she wrote on Twitter and Instagram.

With her, it is the number two in book sales in France (behind Guillaume Musso) who leaves, weighing 877,000 copies in 2021. Her rise is one of the great successes of Sophie de Closets: she had signed in 2016 this unknown, author of a single novel with a very small publisher.

"My honor"

Ms. Grimaldi did not give any further explanation for this very resolute decision.

"I didn't have time to plan plan B," she told the literary website ActuaLitté.

Another "coup" recently succeeded by Ms. de Closets: the success of an investigation into the nursing homes of the Orpea group by journalist Victor Castanet, "Les Fossoyeurs", which sparked a scandal after its release in January.

This author leaves too.

"With Sophie de Closets, I saw how important the independence of a director of a publishing house was. However, Isabelle Saporta defends Nicolas Sarkozy's thesis on Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme without any proof. This is a terrible signal for investigative journalists who publish in this house," he said, interviewed by AFP.

On the L'Obs website on Thursday, Ms. Saporta defended herself against this fear.

"Independence is my honor and above all it is an essential requirement of our authors," she said.

She also denied any intention of interference by Mr. Bolloré within Fayard.

"What I see is that the Hachette group has brought a left-wing, environmentalist investigative journalist with a free voice to the head of a jewel of the group," she said.

According to several sources in the publishing sector, Ms. de Closets is waiting to take the helm of Flammarion editions, deprived of a boss since the resignation in January of Anna Pavlowitch.

Flammarion does not comment.

© 2022 AFP