“I, President of the Republic, will not pretend to appoint the directors of public television channels,” declared candidate François Hollande during the 2012 campaign. A law was passed to this effect in 2013, entrusting this power of appointment to the CSA.
But on Thursday, interviewed under oath by the commission of inquiry at the Assembly on the allocation of TNT frequencies, Olivier Schrameck declared that “President Hollande, during a conversation, canceled one or two people on my behalf whose public rumor indicated that she could be a candidate for office.
However, this is “an exception” and “I have never had to suffer any influence whatsoever.
I never had to work in a position of subordination to Mr. Hollande,” he stressed.
“A very reserved assessment”
Olivier Schrameck then clarified that it was “during a telephone call which had a completely different purpose, (that) the President of the Republic expressed to me his very reserved assessment of two names”.
“At the time they were not candidates” yet for the presidency of France TV, so “the president did not do any sorting,” noted Olivier Schrameck, who until then had not mentioned this episode “ only in the context of a preliminary criminal investigation” which did not concern him.
“The CSA had to decide on their applications,” he added, at the insistence of rapporteur Aurélien Saintoul (LFI).
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François Hollande himself was interviewed in 2019 as part of the investigation into the appointment of Delphine Ernotte as head of France TV in April 2015. According to the JDD, the former president then indicated that Ms. Ernotte “ had his preference, but that he had not exerted any pressure in his favor.
This investigation was opened following complaints from the CFDT-Medias and the CGC-Audiovisuel, who notably suspect Olivier Schrameck of having put pressure on other members of the body to reject certain applications in favor of Delphine Ernotte .
Seized on an administrative level, the Council of State validated his appointment in 2016.
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The president of the commission of inquiry, Quentin Bataillon (Renaissance), estimated on X that these revelations about “illegal pressure” from Mr. Hollande constituted “serious and unprecedented information”.
Marie-Christine Zaragosse and Emmanuel Hoog were concerned, he thinks.
Former chief of staff to Lionel Jospin at the Ministry of Education and Matignon, and former secretary general of the Constitutional Council, Olivier Schrameck was appointed president of the CSA in 2013 by François Hollande.