Staff at Radio France, the French public broadcaster, began a two-day strike from Sunday in protest at the appointment of a senior editor from the hard-right magazine Valeurs Actuelles as a weekly political commentator on France Inter. The walkout, called by all of the group's trade unions, forced the cancellation of the commentator's Sunday slot and disrupted other morning programming on France Inter, while sister stations franceinfo and France Culture broadcast as scheduled. The dispute lands months before France's presidential election, in which opinion polls currently put the National Rally's Marine Le Pen in a strong position.
Who is Charles Sapin
Charles Sapin is the deputy editor-in-chief of Valeurs Actuelles, a weekly magazine that describes itself as conservative and is generally classified as being on the far right of French politics. He previously worked at Le Figaro and Le Point before joining Valeurs Actuelles, where he covers the National Rally and the radical right. Since 30 August, he has presented a three-minute Sunday political commentary in France Inter's flagship morning programme. He is also expected to appear weekly on the France Info television channel in a debate segment opposite the activist Rokhaya Diallo, a booking that unions at France Télévisions have separately challenged.
The strike unfolds
Under a call from the intersyndicale, the coalition representing all Radio France's trade unions (CFDT, CGT, FO, SNJ, SUD and Unsa), staff walked out for Sunday and Monday, 13 and 14 September, demanding that Sapin's editorial be withdrawn. Sapin's commentary, normally broadcast at around 7.40am, did not air on Sunday, and a pre-recorded message told listeners that regular programming could not go ahead in full. Other segments of France Inter's morning schedule were replaced with music. The unions also organised a rally outside the Maison de la Radio, Radio France's Paris headquarters. A staff general meeting held the previous Wednesday had already adopted, by unanimous motion, a "categorical refusal" of Sapin's presence on air, addressed to Radio France president Sibyle Veil and France Inter director Céline Pigalle.
Legal and editorial controversy
Unions have argued that Valeurs Actuelles' editorial line is incompatible with Radio France's public-service mandate. The National Union of Journalists (SNJ) has called the appointment "unacceptable," and the CGT's journalists' branch has pointed to the magazine's legal record, noting that it was convicted on appeal in 2022 over a racist depiction of Danièle Obono, a Black MP from the La France Insoumise party, in which she was portrayed as a slave. Valeurs Actuelles has faced other legal disputes over the years, though the current dispute concerns editorial policy rather than any pending legal action against Sapin himself.
Institutional response
Radio France's management has defended the appointment as a matter of pluralism ahead of the presidential vote. Céline Pigalle told listeners she trusted Sapin "not to jeopardise France Inter's airwaves," while Sibyle Veil said at the group's start-of-season press conference that the station was giving a platform to "people who do not think the same way." Radio France's editorial director, Vincent Meslet, confirmed in an internal email that Sapin would remain on air despite the staff vote. Culture Minister Catherine Pégard, asked about the row, warned against what she called a "witch hunt" and said France Inter's programming "must remain open."
Political reactions
The dispute has drawn comment from figures across the political spectrum. La France Insoumise leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon described Sapin's appointment as a "takeover by fascists," while Bruno Retailleau of the centre-right Les Républicains accused Radio France's editorial staff of "sectarianism." Around 300 public figures, including the actress Julie Gayet, wife of former president François Hollande, and the Nobel Prize-winning author Annie Ernaux, signed an opinion piece in Le Parisien calling Sapin's recruitment "outrageous" and demanding his removal as a political commentator. The piece argued that pluralism must operate within republican values and should not be confused with tolerance for ideas seen as threatening democracy and fundamental rights.
Wider context
The row feeds into a broader argument over political balance in French public broadcasting. A parliamentary committee of inquiry, established last year by the UDR, a party allied with the National Rally, after claims that public broadcasters favour the left, is expected to publish findings from its rapporteur, MP Charles Alloncle. Separately, Radio France and France Télévisions have an ongoing complaint before Paris's commercial court against media outlets linked to businessman Vincent Bolloré, alleging denigration during an earlier internal dispute; a procedural hearing in that case is set for 25 November.
Source: AFP
