Counter rebellion Bookshops take a stand against Hachette owner

The conservative billionaire and media owner Vincent Bolloré is facing an independent bookshop rebellion over his influence in the French publishing world.

- Angelique Chrisafis

This week, the representative body for staff at the French book business Hachette Livre, owned by Bolloré since 2023, wrote to employees to warn that its "founding values" must be respected amid concerns about far-right ideas being promoted in Bolloré's print and TV media and a growing booksellers' revolt.

"Books matter," said Thibaut Willems, the owner of Le Pied à Terre independent bookshop in Paris's 18th arrondissement. He is one of dozens of independent booksellers trying to counter the growing influence of the conservative Catholic billionaire, whose vast empire includes TV, radio, the newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, and, since 2023, the biggest book publishing and distribution conglomerate in France, Hachette Livre.

Bolloré is best known in France for his group's ownership of CNews, the most-watched news channel on TV, which figures on the left have attacked for giving a platform to reactionary voices they say aided the rise of the far right. The businessman was once described by the former education minister Pap Ndiaye as "very close to the most radical far right".

Bolloré, in a senate hearing in 2022, denied political or ideological interventionism, saying his interest in acquiring media was purely financial and his cultural empire was about promoting French soft power. He said his group was so vast that it contained all views.