80 years of "Nice-Matin": Michel Bavastro, the "Cobra" and politics

It would be tempting to reduce Michel Bavastro's relationship with politics to a few caricatures. But in doing so, we would distort a protean reality that cannot be reduced—far from it!—to a left-right divide.

"A man of the right, Michel Bavastro was never a Gaullist," recalls Charles Guerrin, a former journalist and union leader at Nice-Matin from 1963 to 2004. "He was more inclined towards French Algeria, in line with the tens of thousands of pieds-noirs who flocked to the Alpes-Maritimes and Var at that time, profoundly changing the demographics of the Côte d'Azur and our readership. But at the same time, anxious to curry favor with those in power, Bavastro almost openly supported the Gaullist candidate Louis Delfino against Mayor Jean Médecin in the 1965 municipal elections. Without success..."

Seen from the capital of the Côte d'Azur, the situation is even more complex. If Nice-Matin clearly became "medical" in the fifties, it was not through ideology, even less through submission to the baron of Nice: rather through "convergence of interest between the dominant daily and the strong man of local politics" , underlines Jean-Rémy Bezias, doctor of contemporary history, in a fascinating study published in 2016 (1).

"As a newspaper boss, Bavastro fits into the model of a businessman seeking above all to develop his business," he explains. "[He prefers] discreet influence to the open expression of his political preferences, albeit unambiguous. In doing so, the strongman of Nice-Matin at least indirectly favors the dominant trend. [The newspaper] seems in fact to abstain from any investigative function or from taking a critical stance against local power, at least during the time of Jean Médecin."

When Jacques Médecin succeeded his father in 1966, everything changed. The man already nicknamed "the Cobra" looked down with a touch of condescension on this young man who had been a journalist at Nice-Matin before entering public life.

"He couldn't stomach the fact that one of his former employees dared to give him a run for his money," explains Maurice Huleu, a senior reporter in charge of covering politics. "The order was quickly passed on: not another word, not a single photo of Jacques Médecin in our columns! Which was bound to pose insoluble problems on a daily basis..."

The cold war between Bavastro and Médecin lasted until the twilight of the 1970s. In 1979, while Nice-Matin was experiencing the longest labor dispute in its history—with a nineteen-day non-publication—the mayor extended a helping hand to his old adversary by providing the city's resources to print a "pirate" newspaper. Michel Bavastro would complain bitterly about this some time later to his company's union representatives: "Because of you, I had to make a pact with that thug!"

Until the end of his 47-year reign at the head of the newspaper, Michel Bavastro imposed choices dictated more by his personal affinities than by real ideological connections.

All the Nice-Matin journalists knew that this or that personality was not allowed to appear in the pages. "Those involved were also aware," smiles a former photographer. "Some were kind enough to move out of the frame when we took out our lenses, so as not to 'spoil' the shot."

Conversely, the "friends of the boss" were entitled to every consideration. Woe betide anyone who neglected to relay the words of these well-regarded figures!

"What you have to understand is that in this little game, Michel Bavastro wasn't subject to anything; he was imposing," insists Maurice Huleu. "He wasn't subject to the city officials. It was he, and he alone, who made the decisions - and his sentences were final."

François Rosso, who was notably head of agencies in Antibes, Grasse and Cannes, emphasizes that "the boss's arbitrariness was exercised mainly towards elected officials in Nice. West of the Alpes-Maritimes, the pressure was not the same. Just as it was east of the Var."

This system cracked in the late 1990s. The arrival of Michel Comboul as president, after the takeover of the Lagardère Group, profoundly changed the relationship between Nice-Matin and the political microcosm. "For the first time, we read a report of a Socialist Party meeting in the newspaper," recalls a former rotativist worker. "At that moment, we understood that times had changed."

1. “Power in the press and political influence: the leaders of the Nice press”, Cahiers de la Méditerranée (June 2016).