The historian and left-winger Jacques Julliard has died at the age of 90. Pillar of New Observer alongside Jean Daniel, he became an editorialist for the weekly Mariannein 2010, then columnist for Le Figaro from 2017.
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Historian, academic, essayist, trade unionist, Jacques Julliard was a man of conviction. His journey is mixed with that of the left in France. In 2012, he also wrote The French lefts 1762-2012: history, politics and imagination, wishing to return to a political movement that he knew very well. Close to Michel Rocard, he had in fact been a figure of the “second left” who wanted to reconcile socialism with the market economy, in opposition to the “first left” of François Mitterrand.
But he prefers, despite his appetite for verbal jousting, not to enter politics and instead chooses analysis and intellectual reflection as well as trade unionism which he considers more ambitious.
Later, he defended François Hollande and the media harassment against him by saying: “ François Hollande’s main weakness is the Socialist Party. » Former president François Hollande also paid him a long tribute on social networks.
A great republican, humanist and socialist voice has just died out.
Jacques Julliard cherished the Nation without ever losing his European commitments. He gave in nothing on universal values and secularism without ever stifling his vibrant faith. He campaigned… pic.twitter.com/JXq8jJ5xNW
— François Hollande (@fhollande) September 8, 2023
Journalist for thirty-two years New Observer, close to Jean Daniel, he liked to analyze French politics, democracy and major currents of thought. In 2010, he joined the weekly Marianne And Le Figaro in 2017 for a monthly column.
Natacha Polony, editorial director of the magazine Marianne, pays tribute to him on X (formerly Twitter).
Dear Jacques, you offered Marianne your humanity, your immense culture, your intelligence. Thank you from the heart
Our editorialist Jacques Julliard, theoretician and lover of the French left, has died https://t.co/Hh6WYuoQ7w via @MarianneleMag— Natacha Polony (@NPolony) September 8, 2023
Both had also been guests of Emmanuelle Bastide on RFI to talk about education in 2015, on the occasion of the release of her book School is over.
Listen again tooFrench school and youth: can education once again become a gathering place?
Born on March 4, 1933 in Brénod, in Ain, into a family of local notables enriched by the wine trade, a student at the École normale supérieure in 1954, he joined the magazine the following year Spirit. Invested in student unionism, he was committed to anti-colonialist ideas. He had also taught in Chartres, then at the Institute of Political Studies in Bordeaux and at the same time led a career as an academic and semi-permanent at the CFDT.