After questioning the thinking heads of Canal + and CNews in February, the parliamentarians of the commission of inquiry into the allocation of TNT frequencies heard
Vincent Bolloré
on Wednesday .
The main shareholder of the Vivendi group, to which the channels in question belong.
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After confirming his loyalty to Cyril Hanouna and discussing his takeover of Canal +, the businessman responded to a question from the rapporteur on the dismissals of Stéphane Guy and Sébastien Thoen in 2020.
“The question of disobedience and disloyalty is central to what concerns us.
Mr. Stéphane Guy was dismissed for a lack of loyalty.
Are you able to tell me to whom he was disloyal?
, asks Aurélien Saintoul, LFi deputy for Hauts-de-Seine.
“I don't know him and I have nothing to do with all of these points you mention.
»
“Remind me who Stéphane Guy is? I don’t know who it is, forgive me
,” replies Vincent Bolloré.
“He is a gentleman who supported Sébastien Thoen, whom you should know better, who had himself been fired
,” explains Aurélien Saintoul.
The elected official could have specified that Stéphane Guy was for years one of the pillars of Canal + sports commentary.
Ousted in 2020, he publicly expressed his support for comedian Sébastien Thoen, sacked after his participation in a parody sketch on the show “L’Heure des pros”.
Thoen has since returned to Canal +.
And Stéphane Guy, who now works on RMC Sport, had the group condemned to the industrial tribunal for “dismissal without real and serious cause”.
“
Sébastien Thoen, I only saw him once”
“I don’t think I’ve ever met Stéphane Guy in my life, I don’t know him
,” continues Vincent Bolloré
.
And Sébastien Thoen, I only saw him once.
I was asked to do a show at the Olympia in front of all the Canal + staff, when I arrived and my reputation was that of Attila.
I think he greeted me as I left.
So I don’t know him and I have nothing to do with all of these points that you mention.”
Aurélien Saintoul then cites an SMS, sent by the boss of Canal + Maxime Saada to Sébastien Thoen according to the media
Les Jours
, which attributed the reason for his dismissal to a
“shareholder's decision”
.
Also read: Sébastien Thoen: “Thank you boss for taking me back, for firing me, for keeping me, for trusting me…”
“I don’t know what he did, I’ve never seen what you’re talking about
,” retorts Vincent Bolloré.
I have a group of 80,000 people, I don't know everything that's going on.
When you are at the head of a large group, you mainly manage the six or seven people who report to you.
I feel sorry for that boy, I hope everything goes well for him.”
Everything seems to be going well for Sébastien Thoen, who hosted a comedy show on Canal + in December 2023.
At the same time, during an interview with Sébastien Thoen, Maxime Saada invited himself into the conversation to explain the reasons for his dismissal:
“We were in a period where the Canal + group was attacked from all sides and we We had the impression, with this sketch, of being attacked from the inside.
“It was a difficult decision to make at the time
,” confessed the manager.