Macron and the moguls: Inside the fight over a ‘French Fox News’ – By Michel Rose, Gwénaëlle Barzic, Mathieu Rosemain (Reuters) / Dec 17 2020
PARIS (Reuters) – Behind the corporate battle for French media company Lagardere, there’s a political tug-of-war involving the country’s richest man, a media magnate and President Emmanuel Macron.
FILE PHOTO: French President Emmanuel Macron talks with LVMH luxury group CEO Bernard Arnault at the Viva Tech start-up and technology gathering in Paris, France, May 24, 2018. Michel Euler/Pool via Reuters/File Photo
At stake is control of one of France’s best-known private radio stations and its power to sway voters ahead of France’s presidential election in 2022, when Macron could face off once again with far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
Macron fears that if media tycoon Vincent Bollore wins Lagardere, he could use its Europe 1 radio to inundate the airwaves with right-wing views and make the president’s re-election bid even tougher, two sources close to the matter said.
So when Bollore’s Vivendi built a stake in Lagardere in April, Macron’s office relayed its concerns to Bernard Arnault, the billionaire founder of luxury goods empire LVMH and one of the president’s early supporters, the sources said.
