Journalist Jérôme Garcin has resigned from the Renaudot jury, the price questioned for having rewarded the pedophile writer Gabriel Matzneff in 2013, and wished to be replaced by a woman, according to a letter revealed on Tuesday by the Obs. In the letter of resignation sent to the other members of the jury, he explains that he "wanted to wait until the storm passed to warn them".
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The literary prize was taken in the turmoil of the Matzneff affair, after the publication at the beginning of January of an autobiographical novel by the editor Vanessa Springora ("The consent"), in which she denounces the ravages of her relationship under the influence of the writer, claimed pedophile, in the Eighties. She was then hardly 14 years old and him almost 50 years old.
"I am not leaving just because of the Springora affair," said Jérôme Garcin, who runs the culture pages of the Obs, recalling that he "refused to vote for Matzneff" in 2013. The literary prize had him in business Matzneff: for Antoine Gallimard to publish the writer "was becoming problematic".
Also a member of the jury, Frédéric Beigbeder, admitted that the awarding of this prize had been "clumsy". "It was in no way the consecration of a pedophile monster," said the man who said at the end of 2019 that he wanted to remain "friend" of Gabriel Matzneff, while judging him "indefensible". Targeted by an investigation for rape of minors, Gabriel Matzneff will be tried in September 2021 for “apology” for pedophilia.
A 90% male jury
Also denouncing "the vices of form" of Renaudot, "in particular the search for + shots +, to the detriment of literature", Jérôme Garcin, member of the jury since 2011, criticizes "the aberrant constitution of a jury of 90% male" .
"And I already dare to hope that my place will be occupied by a woman," continues the man who is also known for hosting the weekly radio show "Le Masque et la Plume" on France Inter.
The Renaudot jury was composed in November 2019 of Patrick Besson, Frédéric Beigbeder, Dominique Bona, the only woman on the jury, Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, Jérôme Garcin, Louis Gardel, Franz-Olivier Giesbert, Christian Giudicelli, JMG Le Clézio and Jean- Christmas Pancrazi.