Robert Hersant

Robert Joseph Emile Hersant (born January 31, 1920 in Vertou ( Loire-Atlantique ), † April 21, 1996 in Neuilly-sur-Seine ) was a French entrepreneur , press publisher and politician . From the 1970s to the 1980s he exercised a leading position in journalism in France. In the political debate there, his role was discussed extremely critically and controversially.

Life

youth

Robert Hersant's father was an ocean captain. Robert attended grammar schools in Rouen and Le Havre . At the age of 16 he joined the socialist youth. According to his own statements, he was already interested in journalism in his youth. After a long stay abroad, he published his first newspaper at the age of 18, but only one issue appeared. "But the way was mapped out," said Hersant about himself. "I realized that the press would be my calling."

After the French surrender in 1940, he traveled to Paris, changed his political side and benefited from the new order. He became a leading member of the Jeune Front (Young Front), a fascist youth organization. Their newspaper, Au Pilori (Am Pillory), was notorious for anti-Semitic hate speech. In September 1940 he was charged with fraud against Jewish business people. In 1942 he founded his own newspaper, Organe des jeunes du Maréchal (Organ of the Marshal's Youth). In 1943 he was charged again for fraud, abuse of trust, and violating the laws and regulations governing food rationing, and spent a month in Rouen Prison. In 1945, after the liberation of France , he ran for the local elections in Paris. In 1947 he was sentenced to 10 years of indignité national , but pardoned in 1953 as part of a general amnesty .

Rise as an entrepreneur

In the same year he became mayor of the municipality of Ravenel in the Oise department . As a candidate for the left-wing liberal Front républicain , then headed by Pierre Mendès France and François Mitterrand , he was elected MP after a loud election campaign in which he included the actors Martine Carol and Luis Mariano . On April 18, 1956, his election was invalidated after the independent MP Jean Legendre presented his research on Hersant's biography during World War II to the National Assembly.

In the same year he experienced his first major journalistic successes. The Auto-journal , at whose head he had been since 1950, was economically successful, as was the regional daily Oise-Matin , which he had headed since 1952. In 1960 he founded the Center-presse group , in 1963, against the resistance of General de Gaulle , France-Antilles . In 1968 he bought the socialist regional daily newspaper Nord-Matin . In 1972, after a bitter campaign, he succeeded in buying up a symbol of the Resistance , the Paris-Normandie newspaper , from which he had gradually bought out the shareholders, mostly former members of the Resistance. In public, this action was interpreted as Hersant's personal revenge; to compensate for the humiliations he suffered in the 1947 and 1956 trials.

The press czar

In 1975 his largest acquisition followed, the purchase of Figaro , the journalistic flagship of the democratic right.

In the 1970s and 1980s, more acquisitions followed, including France Soir (1976), L'Aurore (1977), Le Dauphiné Libéré (1983) and L'Union et le Progrès (1985). Because of his numerous purchases from the press, he was finally called Le Papivore , the paper eater .

The public debate on the person and role of Robert Hersant once again became loud and controversial when he ran on Simone Veil's list for the European Parliament , of which he was a member from 1984 until his death. While some denounced the fascist past, the journalistic concentration of power and his political change of direction, the other side praised his achievements as an entrepreneur and his entrepreneurial straightforwardness and determination. Simone Veil responded to the public criticism that there were people in François Mitterrand's personal environment who had done worse things than Hersant.

The relationship between Mitterrand himself and Hersant was characterized by aloof mutual respect. In 1956, Mitterrand had not voted to withdraw Hersant's parliamentary seat. In 1977 a detailed portrait of Mitterrand was published in Figaro . During his presidency, Mitterrand did not act against Hersant's press empire. In 1986, in an interview with Le Monde , Mitterrand said that he thought Hersant was a good writer.

Late years

In the 1980s, Hersant suffered a series of severe personal blows of fate. In 1986, his confidante André Audinot died , who had served him as his right-hand man in the entire management since the death of his brother Patrick . In 1987 his attempt to build a television empire with the participation of Silvio Berlusconi failed . The establishment of the television station La Cinq ended in an economic fiasco. By poaching the audience stars of the channel TF1 , the audience should be drawn over to La Cinq. However, the majority of this audience did not follow the advert. In 1991, the former Minister of Culture Michel d'Ornano died in a traffic accident on the street in front of Hersant's apartment, immediately after visiting Hersant. Shortly before Christmas 1992, his eldest son Jacques died unexpectedly.

He gave his last public interview in 1984. In early 1995, he suffered severe heart disease; after that he no longer showed himself in public.

literature

• Alain Salles: Robert Hersant, le souffre de la plume , Le Monde , 23 April 1996.
• Robert Hersant , in Internationales Biographisches Archiv 31/1996 of July 22, 1996, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of article freely available)

References and comments

1. ^ "Mais la voie était tracée. Je venais de m'apercevoir que la presse serait mon métier. »In: Alain Salles: Robert Hersant, le souffre de la plume , Le Monde, April 23, 1996.
2. ^ Meant was Marshal Philippe Pétain , the president of the government collaborating with Germany .
3. ↑ analogously: withdrawal of civil rights
4. ↑ "The trouve qu'il écrit bien" In Alain Salles: Robert Hersant, le souffre de la plume , Le Monde, April 23, 1996th

Web links

• Entry on Robert Hersant in the database of Members of the European Parliament
• Obituary at L'humanité (French)