The president of the Goncourt Academy Didier Decoin was re-elected president on Monday, unanimously except for one, announced the jury which awards the most prestigious of French literary prizes.
“During today’s general meeting, the office of the academy chaired by Didier Decoin was renewed by 8 votes for, 1 vote against,” said the Academy on Twitter.
The vote took place at the Drouant restaurant, where jurors have been meeting for lunch for more than a century. The name of the person who voted against the other guests has not been disclosed, in accordance with custom.
Mr Decoin had been challenged in the fall when the finalists for the 2022 prize were announced.
For this event planned in Beirut, a dilemma arose after remarks by the Lebanese Minister of Culture, Mohammad Mourtada, close to the Shiite movement Amal, an ally of the pro-Iranian group Hezbollah, against the “Zionists”.
Five of the ten jurors, including Mr. Decoin, had believed that the best response to this attack was to maintain the trip to Beirut. The other five considered it better to cancel it in protest, and stayed in France.
When the Prix Goncourt was announced in early November, these two camps voted for two different novels, without moving an inch during 14 rounds of voting.
Only the rule attributing at the end a double vote to the president made it possible to elect “Vivre vite” by Brigitte Giraud against the “Mage du Kremlin” by Giuliano da Empoli.
The renewal of the office means that Philippe Claudel remains secretary and Camille Laurens treasurer of this recognized association of public utility.
Mr. Decoin, 77, has served as chairman since 2020.
The Goncourt Academy provisionally has nine members instead of the ten provided for in its statutes, after the departure in December, for health reasons, of Patrick Rambaud, 76 years old.
This was one of the jurors who called not to go to Beirut and wanted the Goncourt to go to Giuliano da Empoli.
Mr. Rambaud’s successor must be appointed at an undetermined date.
The Academy notoriously seeks to feminize itself, today counting twice as many men as women.
In May, the Goncourts give their prizes for the first novel, biography and poetry. The race for the Goncourt prize, awarded at the beginning of November, then starts, at the end of spring, with the presentation to the jurors of the contending novels by the publishers.