"Intellectually excited", fit, inexhaustible.
When he receives us at his office surrounded by books on Thursday, Jean-Pierre Elkabbach has prepared small sheets for our interview.
He's "retraining," he smiles.
After a year of absence and the "shock" of a serious health problem that he keeps "private", the former boss of France Televisions and Europe 1, restored, finds the spotlight on September 27 at 7 pm with a new political show on CNews, "Repères".
At 82, he resumed his abs sessions and kept his muscular formulas intact.
"You do not divorce with a passion", warns the one who does not hear, unlike Jean-Pierre Pernaut, leave his chair.
How are you ?
JEAN-PIERRE ELKABBACH.
The best possible.
What I got was unexpected and violent.
I was lucky to be treated by the best.
I resisted, here I am standing.
France can be proud of its health workers, they have my gratitude.
I was hospitalized for a month and a half.
For weeks, I had no other interest than survival.
But the page is turned, I have no treatment.
If I had one piece of advice: let everyone do preventive checks.
We haven't seen you since October 24, 2019 ...
Yes.
I lived two consecutive confinements!
Faced with such events, we relativize, we become calmer, perhaps a little wiser.
I put patience in my impatience.
And so you go back in the ring by launching this new show?
It will be called “Benchmarks”, because faced with changes in society and the planet, we need benchmarks.
I hate people saying “it was better before”.
My principle is that it will be better afterwards.
What do we need to know about the coming world?
This will be the spirit of my show.
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"Repères", like the program you hosted on France 3 in 1992?
It's my obsession!
There will be a central guest, politician, historian, philosopher, artist… to help us understand our society.
With in addition each Sunday a different speaker, that we do not see everywhere.
“Everything is said here, defends Jean-Pierre Elkabbach.
May the skeptics have the courage to come, they have their place!
»/ LP / Olivier Corsan
Do you come back with cash questions, your hallmark?
Me, it's me.
I stay who I am.
I will ask the common sense questions that people would like to ask, with a commitment of impartiality.
I hate conformisms.
“Elkabbach is on the right”, we have often heard during your career.
Does it bother you?
We are wrong!
I try to do my job in total neutrality.
The poet René Char used to say: “Coming into the world so as not to disturb people is useless.
»Must disturb!
I am not a chameleon, I do not take the color of my guest.
Some political program hosts regret the absence of "big cats" like Chirac or Sarkozy to ensure the audience.
Do you share this feeling?
Not at all.
The current generation is no less gifted than the previous ones.
If they are not good, it is our fault because our role is to reveal talent.
The political parties lack ideas to protect the French.
That they no longer just cackle and explain how they would solve the problems if they want to become a credible alternative to Emmanuel Macron.
CNews has become the second news channel, at the cost of repeated debates and sometimes radical words.
Do you find yourself there?
Stop caricature.
The editorial staff tackles all subjects with all trends.
CNews is now a potential leader in non-stop news channels because it is a mirror of current France, it offers debates with interlocutors who confront each other without taboos.
Everything is said here, even subjects forbidden by the fear of unique thought and fashion.
May the skeptics have the courage to come, they have their place!
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Serge Nedjar, boss of CNews: "We do not forbid any theme or any speaker"
You are in great shape!
If it's you who say so!
I work and ask questions in complete freedom.
No one imposes my guests on me.
Otherwise, I'm leaving.
My choices are my choices, the good and the bad.
I am a record holder for layoffs: I was in 1968, 1975, 1981, 1996. Who says better?
With as weapons to return the work and the passion.
What is your view on Eric Zemmour, who has tripled the audience of his time slot?
A swallow does not make spring, but an Eric Zemmour does not make fascism in France.
If we deplore his ideas, if we fear him, the solution is to confront him.
What is this sectarian society, curled up that only wants to debate with its own mirror?
Eric Zemmour exists by displaying his judgments and his anxieties.
You have to talk to him, and when you don't agree, explain to him that he is wrong.
We must not live in conformism and fear.
Who would you like to receive?
Everyone has their place in my show, from ministers Gérald Darmanin or Eric Dupond-Moretti to international actors.
Our time does not need parrots but prophets and builders.
And simple people who testify, like all those who saved our lives during this confinement.
I would like us to get away from media provincialism.
We are staring at each other, at a time when there are global issues, from fascist imperialism Erdogan to the battle between Trump and China ...
You advise Vincent Bolloré and Arnaud Lagardère.
A merger between CNews and Europe 1 would be a good idea?
The two are my friends.
This rapprochement is not the only possible formula.
I am sure it will end well.
Jean-Pierre Pernaut leaves his chair at the 13 Hours after 33 years ...
Too bad.
He brought a lot to the French and to the press.
I respect his decision, if it is his choice.
I'm glad he's staying on the air.
