Jean-François Kahn died at the age of 86. The Prime Minister showed his emotion through a message of tribute
The journalist Jean-François Kahn, founder of “L’Événement du Jeudi” and the weekly magazine “Marianne”, has died. The information was revealed on January 23, 2025 by “The Point”a newspaper with which he still worked occasionally. A media and stage man, Jean-François Kahn had become a recognized editorialist, who did not hesitate to raise his voice or make a few rants on television. The causes of his death have not been revealed.
An occasional essayist, author of numerous works devoted to political life or to historical figures like Victor Hugo, he was recognized for his way of exercising his profession as a journalist with a very particular determination and freedom. The Point speaks of him as a man of many facets: “a little Marxist, a little Christian, a little Jewish, a little Parisian, a little Burgundian, a little European, a little left, a little liberal, ultimately from the center, where he was never more himself.”
He had worked for “Paris-Presse l’intransigeant”, a newspaper for which he covered the Algerian war, before collaborations with “L’Express”, Europe 1 and “Le Monde”. In 1983, he created “L’Événement du Jeudi” and, in 1997, “Marianne”, a weekly that he wanted to have a resolutely independent tone, defender of republican and secular principles. Jean-François Kahn was the brother of the chemist Olivier Kahn and the geneticist Axel Kahn, who died in 2021.
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The Prime Minister posted this message on , Marianne. He embodied “revolutionary centrism”, humanism and fidelity” And added: “We loved him”. François Bayrou knew the journalist very well, who had called for people to vote for him for the presidential elections of 2007 and 2012, saying he was “convinced that he was the man France needed”. Jean-François Kahn also ran for the 2009 European elections on a MoDem list.