A “Stop Bolloré” collective was launched on Wednesday by journalists’ unions, associations, independent media and left-wing personalities, while the Breton group celebrated its 200th anniversary on Thursday.
You should have seen Thursday Vincent, Cyrille and Yannick, the father and his two sons, in front of a small church in traditional Breton costume in Ergué Gabéric, near Quimper, to measure the attachment of the Bolloré to this identity which would almost make you forget, to the sound biniou, with whom we are dealing. Because Vincent Bolloré may well recall the family legend of the small Odet paper mill created by an ancestor 200 years ago, it is today a multinational of 80,000 employees with 24 billion euros in turnover. and which is present in Africa as in many countries through Canal+, Havas, Editis and tomorrow Hachette.
However, it is precisely this group that is beginning to see a front of refusal rise before it in the face of what personalities and organizations describe as ” sprawling media empire “in the service of a” reactionary ideology “. The “Stop Bolloré” collective is supported by journalists’ unions, the SNJ and the SNJ-CGT, the lawyer Arié Halimi, but also by independent journalists like Edwy Plenel or Daniel Schneidermann. This collective calls into question CNews, in particular, and it seized Arcom about the opinions which are diffused there. The channel of former columnist and current presidential candidate Eric Zemmour is accused of ” nurture an obsession with far-right themes “.
A seemingly retreat
So Bolloré, stop or again? Part of the answer comes from Vincent Bolloré himself, since he had given himself until February 17, 2022 to retire, on the eve of his 70th birthday. However, if the son Cyrille, aged 36, has been the CEO of the Bolloré group for three years, if the other son Yannick is indeed at 42 years old the boss of Havas and chairman of the supervisory board of Vivendi, the patriarch remains the one who decides everything, if only because he keeps control of the holding company of the group, the Compagnie de l’Odet.
Will he gradually withdraw from the business world to become a kind of great leader anxious to contribute to the preservation of the building of his country? This is undoubtedly his dream, and what motivates him in his support for Éric Zemmour, support that is not assumed since Vincent Bolloré continues to call himself a “Christian Democrat”, without any ideological aim and investing in the media only for their profitability.
Finally, the false start of Vincent Bolloré is a bit like his group. A seemingly retreat from all things world affairs, but in reality a way of getting involved through the media in an increasingly meaningful and political way.