Marianne employees voted unanimously on Thursday in favor of a 24-hour renewable strike that will begin Friday at 6 a.m. The decision was motivated by the lack of response from the magazine’s owner, billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, and his representative Denis Olivennes to their previous statement announcing their opposition to the purchase of the press title by conservative billionaire Pierre-Édouard Stérin.
“Partisan enterprise”
Indeed, earlier in the day, the editorial staff of Marianne had finally opposed the takeover of the magazine by the billionaire Pierre-Édouard Stérin, which it had initially accepted, the day after an article in Le Monde on its links with the RN.
“What appeared to be an individual ideological commitment turns out to be a partisan enterprise,” said the Society of Marianne Editors (SRM) in a press release, according to which “the nature of the takeover offer has been definitively altered.” The editorial staff therefore “unanimously voted (…) against the purchase of the magazine by Pierre-Edouard Stérin.”
She asked the magazine’s owner, billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, and his representative Denis Olivennes to “put an end to the negotiation process”. The editorial team considers it necessary “to look for new buyers capable of ensuring the editorial independence of Marianne and the economic sustainability of the title”.
“Significant progress”
On June 21, the editorial team decided by 60.3% not to oppose the purchase of the title by Pierre-Édouard Stérin, with whom Daniel Kretinsky’s CMI group has been in exclusive negotiations since May.
She then believed that she had obtained “significant progress” which justified, according to her, continuing negotiations on “the guarantees of independence” proposed by Pierre-Édouard Stérin, a conservative Catholic billionaire, and economically liberal.
But on Wednesday, Le Monde published an article entitled “How billionaire Pierre-Édouard Stérin places his pawns at the RN”. In this article, the daily newspaper assures that several LR-RN candidates in the legislative elections come from the “Stérin galaxy”, in particular by being linked to the Common Good Fund, a philanthropic structure created by the 50-year-old billionaire at the head of the Otium Capital investment fund.
Another offer of 5 million euros
Le Monde also cites another article from Challenges magazine, according to which Pierre-Edouard Stérin and Otium’s number 2, François Durvye, bought the Le Pen family property in Rueil-Malmaison in November, via a real estate company (SCI ).
According to Challenges, this property, where RN founder Jean-Marie Le Pen still lives, was sold for 2.5 million euros.
Alongside the exclusive negotiations with Pierre-Édouard Stérin, a challenger made another takeover offer for Marianne: entrepreneur Jean-Martial Lefranc, who made a career in video games. On Wednesday, he sent a new offer of 5 million euros, allied with other investors, Philippe Corrot (co-founder of the e-commerce company Mirakl), Henri de Bodinat and Joan Beaufort.
“For the time being, none of the takeover offers presented meet the criteria set out by Denis Olivennes during his visit to Marianne,” the SRM nevertheless underlines in its press release.