At “Paris-Match”, an unpublished article on Valérie Pécresse heightens tensions within the editorial staff

To Paris Matchthe non-publication this summer of an article devoted to Valérie Pécresse is creating controversy within the weekly, franceinfo learned on Saturday September 3 from concordant sources, confirming information from the site Days and of opinion. The editorial management of Paris Match canceled the publication of this article which evoked the tensions within the Republicans and in particular the hypothesis of settling scores with Nicolas Sarkozy.

Before the summer, the weekly asks Valérie Pécresse to lend herself to a series of interviews with the journalist Sophie des Déserts with a view to a major investigation into the feelings of the candidate Les Républicains after her defeat in the presidential election. . A series of three interviews takes place during the month of July. Exclusive photos are also taken. The article is modeled and scheduled on August 18th. But for the first time it was dismissed by the editorial management in favor of a six-page report on the summer fires. This exclusive interview also does not appear in the issue following August 25, or even on the newspaper’s website.

Last Tuesday, August 30, the editorial journalists were moved by what looks like a form of censorship. According to concordant sources at franceinfo, in this article, a few lines evoked the hypothesis of sabotage of the campaign of Valérie Pécresse by Nicolas Sarkozy. The former head of the state party to the 11-member board of directors of the Lagardère group, which still owns Paris Match. On July 28, he was on the front page of the newspaper with his wife Carla Bruni. Contacted by franceinfo, the management of the weekly refuses to comment.

This episode comes two weeks after the departure of Bruno Jeudy, political and economic editor of the weekly, curtly dismissed after the controversy over the front page devoted to Cardinal Robert Sarah, one of the leading figures of conservative currents Catholics. At the time, the Society of Journalists of Paris Match had denounced “interference” of the Lagardère group, with this one imposed against the opinion of the editor-in-chief of the weekly.