Marc Endeweld
We hear a lot about Bolloré because, like Stérin, he’s shown his colors strongly in favor of reactionary ideas and in support of the far right — and its most extreme representatives.
But today a large part of the Parisian economic establishment is interested in Trump and sees itself in Trumpism. It’s not just Bolloré. There’s Bernard Arnault, one of the richest men in world and head of the world’s largest luxury company, LVMH, who’s also moved closer to Bolloré. And there’s Rodolphe Saadé, who has all sorts of business interests in the United States and who signed a $20 billion deal in the Oval Office with Trump in March.
The extreme attraction to Trump of all these billionaires is really important in today’s France.
The reason for the focus on Bolloré by other French media and political leaders is because he did something very noteworthy. He bought Canal+, a pay cable channel like HBO, which was created under [1981–1995 French president] François Mitterrand by his former chief of staff André Rousselet.
The extreme attraction to Trump of all these billionaires is really important in today’s France.
Canal+ was created in the 1980s at a moment when the broadcast industry was being economically liberalized, and it played an important role at the time in the cultural hegemony of the governing left.
The channel was created in 1984, after Mitterrand abandoned his common program of economic reform together with the Parti Communiste Français and accepted the type of market liberalization the European Union wanted.
Canal+ was created at the same time as [anti-racism campaign] SOS Racisme. It was a time when an entire segment of what you could call the cultural left, which you could find around the Parti Socialiste, abandoned a program of economic reform to prioritize social issues, in particular to defend a French…
Auteur: Marc Endeweld
