It is the television adaptation of one of the most watched programs of France Inter for seven years: Sensitive matters is now available on France 2, once a month. The concept is the same: a story, followed by a guest on stage. On Monday, December 13, the third issue of the magazine will be devoted to the Elysée wiretapping scandal.
At the presentation, the same Fabrice Drouelle, happy to return to the affairs of State and the major politico-financial scandals of the Fifth Republic. “The editorial line of Sensitive matters is to have a new look at old stories. We are not necessarily looking for revelation, even if in television we are still looking for new images. The idea is to come back to the events of a fairly recent past to track down their resonances and better understand what is happening today. “
After the behind the scenes financing of the presidential campaigns of Jacques Chirac and Edouard Balladur in 1995, then the French Chernobyl, the third part therefore focuses on the listening of the Elysee in the 1980s, under François Mitterrand. “We understand this story when we understand the climate that reigned at the time. France was in shock after the attack on the rue des Rosiers in the early summer of 1982. Mitterrand created an anti-terrorism unit at the Elysee Palace . Where we get into the scandal is when Mitterrand confuses – knowingly of course – the protection of the French by the State and his personal protection by the same State. There, that poses a problem. “
Among the hundreds of personalities illegally listened to was the writer Jean-Edern Halier. “He had supported Mitterrand and hoped for a ministerial post. He is not even invited to the Elysée garden party! It is a wound of ego, of pride. He then writes a book out of revenge, but the secrets he reveals will be confirmed later: Mazarine, Mitterrand’s cancer and his behavior under the Vichy regime. The book never came out but it circulated under cover and some journalists knew. “
The eavesdropping ceased in 1986, when Jacques Chirac became Prime Minister, but it was not until 1993 that the scandal broke out thanks to an investigation by Release. “In France, no journalist dares to ask the president any questions about it. It is striking, it brings us back to practices which are those of a banana republic.” Only a Belgian journalist from RTBF will break the taboo, which will earn him the cold anger of François Mitterrand in the middle of an interview.