Bolloré Group: Calmann-Lévy heiress complains about Lagardère's "nationalist right-wing bias"

"The combined sales of books by Jordan Bardella, Nicolas Sarkozy, Philippe de Villiers and Xenia Federova at Fayard are equivalent to the sales of a single book by Guillaume Musso [published by Calmann-Lévy, editor's note]. " This acidic reminder is addressed to Arnaud Lagardère, CEO of Lagardère and Hachette Livre, in the pages of Le Monde . Eliane Calmann-Lévy, the heiress of the publishing house that bears her name, attacks the editorial line of the media of the empire of billionaire Vincent Bolloré, which she says is affecting the entire group , and therefore her own store.

"The now right-wing nationalist coloring and pro-Russian trope, with in particular the presence in the Journal du dimanche [JDD], of Xenia Fedorova [former director of the television channel RT France, and author at Fayard, a subsidiary of Hachette, editor's note], a Putin propagandist, makes the majority of the 66,000 employees of Vivendi-Lagardère and Louis Hachette Group, many authors, not to mention business partners and shareholders, very uncomfortable," she thus made known via the evening daily.

Eliane Calmann-Lévy then suggests, in carefully chosen terms, that to "calm a tense and unproductive situation, while allowing free expression, the best solution would be to sell Fayard, the JDD and Europe 1 to the Bolloré group, and thus allow Louis Hachette Group to return to a genuine political neutrality that is welcome and expected." This statement comes at a timely moment after a decision by the European Commission on July 18, according to which Vivendi is accused of having anticipated its takeover of Lagardère. If the proceedings are confirmed , the group faces a fine of 10% of its turnover.

The Calmann-Lévy shareholder's request was, however, dismissed by Arnaud Lagardère, still in Le Monde , who reaffirmed that "Fayard, Europe 1 and the JDD are an integral part of the Lagardère group, they must remain there: their audience success clearly shows that they have a role to play in French society." The heiress's offensive follows a campaign led by independent publishers in the spring against the conservative Catholic billionaire, with the publication of a book in early June entitled "Déborder Bolloré." Several contributions decipher his methods of economic predation, in order to take control of entire sections of the cultural industry.