Didier Decoin re-elected president of the Académie Goncourt.
"During today's general meeting, the office of the academy chaired by Didier Decoin was renewed by 8 votes for, 1 vote against"
, indicates the Academy on its Twitter account.
The vote took place at the Drouant restaurant, where jurors have been meeting for lunch for more than a century.
The name of the person who voted against Decoin has not been disclosed, as is customary.
Since the Francophonie festival in Beirut, a fracture has been created within the Goncourt jury.
In particular after the remarks of the Lebanese Minister of Culture, Mohammad Mourtada, close to the Shiite movement Amal, an ally of the pro-Iranian group Hezbollah, against the “Zionists”.
Five of the ten jurors, including Didier Decoin, president since 2020, had considered that the best response to this attack was to maintain the Goncourt trip to Beirut.
The other five, considering it better to cancel it as a sign of protest, remained in France.
When the Prix Goncourt was announced in early November, the two camps voted for two different novels, without moving an inch during 14 ballots.
Only the rule attributing at the end a double vote to the president made it possible to elect
Vivre vite
by Brigitte Giraud against the
Magus of the Kremlin
by Giuliano da Empoli.
Read also107 crowned authors against 13 female authors: is the Goncourt prize misogynistic?
The renewal of the office means that Françoise Chandernagor remains vice-president, Philippe Claudel secretary general and Camille Laurens treasurer of this association recognized as being of public utility.
The Goncourt Academy provisionally has nine members instead of the ten provided for in its statutes, after the departure in December, for health reasons, of Patrick Rambaud, 76 years old.
This was one of the jurors who called not to go to Beirut and wanted the Goncourt to go to Giuliano da Empoli.
His successor must be designated but the date of this designation has not yet been determined.
The jury, which awards the most prestigious of French literary prizes, is notoriously seeking to be feminized, today counting three women: Françoise Chandernagor, Camille Laurens and Paule Constant.
In May 2023,
