His face was until now unknown to the general public… But, Tuesday evening, on the C8 channel, the Renaissance deputy Quentin Bataillon, president of the highly publicized commission of inquiry into TNT frequencies“created a buzz” and sparked controversy.
In Do not touch My TVon Cyril Hanouna’s set, the elected representative of the presidential majority scratched a host competing with Cyril Hanouna, Yann Barthès, both of whom were heard by this commission of inquiry, initiated by the LFI deputies last fall in order to shed light on the allocation of TNT frequencies, including those of C8 and CNews brought into play this year.
“I think it’s the first time I got angry, he had a pretty arrogant attitude from the start, he refused to answer our questions,” said Quentin Bataillon about the presenter of Daily, on TMC. Yann Barthès had been summoned to explain himself to the commission of inquiry as to why he does not invite elected officials from the RN on his show.
“A serious mistake”
The comments of the 30-year-old deputy, elected in the Loire in 2022, quickly caused controversy. Left-wing political leaders, notably the rebellious Marseille deputy Manuel Bompard, demanded this Wednesday the resignation of Quentin Bataillon from the commission of inquiry.
The First Secretary of the PS Olivier Faure attacked Quentin Bataillon on his own arrogance of “going to Cyril Hanouna to spit on Yann Barthès while chairing a commission of inquiry into TNT”. Still on the social network
For La France Insoumise MP Alexis Corbière, “no one can believe in its independence and objectivity anymore”. For his part, MP Aymeric Caron, member of the LFI group in the Assembly, considered that Quentin Bataillon “committed a serious mistake”. “Here’s another one who is damaging Parliament and getting tired of destroying democracy,” lamented environmentalist Benjamin Lucas, also on X.
The reframing of one’s own camp
The intervention of Quentin Bataillon, former parliamentary assistant to MEP Françoise Grossetête (UMP) before working for Jérôme Lavrilleux, elected to the European Parliament in May 2014, also aroused unease in his own camp. The President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, calls, in a press release, Quentin Bataillon for “reserve” and “discernment”.
As reported Politico this Wednesday, Sylvain Maillard, the president of the group of Renaissance deputies in the National Assembly, stunned by what he had just heard, called his colleague to scold him. He “asked him to be impartial until at the end of the commission of inquiry”, his entourage reported to Politico, adding that the MP’s position “is not representative of the Renaissance group”. On March 28, Quentin Bataillon nevertheless welcomed, in an interview with Opinion, to have “done everything to remain neutral” during the work of the commission of inquiry.
The Renaissance deputy, elected municipal councilor of Feurs (Loire) at the age of 21, also took stock of his work on the Cyril Hanouna plateau. The rapporteur of the commission of inquiry, the Insoumis Aurélien Saintoul, will write his report “alone” by the beginning of May, and “I imagine that he will be marked”, indicated Quentin Bataillon, wishing to “get out of the witch hunt, the hunt for presenters, journalists, channels.”
“We need to make recommendations on the framework” for the choice of frequency holders, he insisted. “We don’t go into people’s homes to tell them what is good, what is bad” and, “sometimes, the contempt that some people may have for your show is transferred to those who watch it”, argued Tuesday evening the parliamentarian, fan of the series House of Cards.