Journalist and essayist Eric Zemmour * sued his former publisher Albin Michel for abusive breach of contract, his lawyer announced on Wednesday.
"There was never an agreement between Albin Michel and my client to break the contract,"
said Me Arnaud de Senilhes in a press release.
He adds that he brought
proceedings against
the publisher
"before the Judicial Court of Paris on June 30".
Read also: Controversy between Albin Michel and Éric Zemmour
Albin Michel, after having edited five works by the editorialist of CNews, announced at the end of June that he was giving up publishing the next one, because the author wanted to
"become a politician"
and
"to make his next book an element. key to his candidacy ”
in the presidential election of 2022. Contacted by AFP, Eric Zemmour simply confirmed the current procedure and declined to comment further.
Albin Michel did not respond to AFP's requests on Wednesday. Its president Gilles Haéri declared to the magazine
Livres Hebdo
, in an interview published on Wednesday, that this decision had
"nothing ideological".
Eric Zemmour has never publicly announced his intention to be a presidential candidate. The breach of contract with Albin Michel leaves this author without a publisher. The book was almost ready, with discussions on the cover underway.
"Neither legally nor morally Albin Michel can decide alone in his corner to throw away an author they went to look for and even less two months before the publication of the book",
estimated the lawyer of Eric Zemmour.
According to information from
Le Figaro
, the affair caused Albin Michel to leave Lise Boëll, the editor who had brought Eric Zemmour in 2012, and was behind a great bookstore success,
Le Suicide français
(2014) .
* Eric Zemmour is also a columnist for Le Figaro
