Unions at Radio France, the French public broadcasting group, called a strike on Sunday, September 13, and Monday, September 14, disrupting programming on France Inter, the group's flagship national radio station. The walkout was called to protest a political chronicle handed to a senior editor at the far-right magazine Valeurs Actuelles.
Listeners heard the broadcaster's familiar strike announcement return to the airwaves after the CFDT, CGT, FO, SNJ, SUD and Unsa unions jointly called the action, the second such notice in recent weeks.
Who is Charles Sapin
At the centre of the dispute is Charles Sapin, the newly appointed deputy editorial director at Valeurs Actuelles, a French far-right weekly magazine. Sapin previously worked as a journalist at Le Point, where he covered nationalist movements, before joining Valeurs Actuelles at the end of the summer.
He delivered his first chronicle, running two minutes and 30 seconds, on France Inter on Sunday, August 30, at 7:40 a.m., on the theme of whether a presidential election could be held under guardianship. A second aired on Sunday, September 6, on the theme of taming artificial intelligence to win elections. A third, scheduled for Sunday, September 13, could not be broadcast; music replaced the news segment instead.
Sapin is one of a group of editorialists recruited by Radio France to deliver a chronicle on France Inter and to debate weekly on France Info TV. The other columnists in the group come from the newsrooms of Le Nouvel Obs, Alternatives Économiques and L'Express.
A rally outside Radio France
The unions called on listeners to gather outside the Maison de la Radio in Paris, the broadcaster's headquarters, on Sunday at 2 p.m. The rally drew barely a hundred people.
CGT Radio France posted on social media that it would not accept the name of Radio France, its channels and their public service mission being associated with that of Valeurs Actuelles, using a slogan that translates as no fascist newspaper on our airwaves.
300 signatories condemn the hire
Hearing a far-right columnist on France's most-listened-to radio station is revolting, according to 300 public figures who signed an open letter published by the newspaper Le Parisien on Saturday.
Signatories with well-known left-wing sympathies included actresses Julie Gayet, Corinne Masiero, Josiane Balasko and Ariane Ascaride, singer Lio, singers Aldebert, Yann Tiersen, Miossec and Magyd Cherfi of the band Zebda, photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand, and Nobel literature laureate Annie Ernaux.
The signatories noted that Valeurs Actuelles has been convicted on several occasions for public racist insult against La France Insoumise lawmaker Danièle Obono, for incitement to racial hatred against Roma people, and for defamation. They also pointed out that billionaire Pierre-Edouard Stérin, known for his far-right political views, is among the magazine's shareholders.
Radio France defends pluralism
Radio France's management has defended its decision to hire a columnist with Sapin's profile in the name of pluralism, ahead of France's 2027 presidential election.
Questioned on Thursday by Radio France's ombudsman, France Inter director Céline Pigalle stood by the decision. She said she understood the unease and disturbance felt by some listeners, but argued that pluralism was fundamental for a public broadcaster.
Political fallout
The affair has taken on a political dimension. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, of the left-wing party La France Insoumise, described Sapin's hiring as a takeover by the far right. Bruno Retailleau, of the right-wing party Les Républicains, criticised what he called the sectarianism of Radio France's newsrooms.
