80 years of "Nice-Matin": André Baudin, the journalist saved by the election of François Mitterrand

"To fire me, Bavastro went all the way to the minister. Unfortunately, the minister was fired before me..."

More than forty years later, André Baudin still laughs about it. From anecdotes to dramatic twists, the story of his years at Nice-Matin reads like an old Tom and Jerry . An episode in which the newspaper's long-time boss – Michel Bavastro – takes on the role of the cat, and the journalist that of the mouse.

"But sorry, it's better to start at the beginning..." The octogenarian spreads his arms, a mischievous look beneath his snow-white hair. He talks about his father Albert, a former soldier, a member of the Resistance, and a reporter for Le Patriote until 1967, whom he "absolutely" did not want to imitate.

"I had attended a tourism school," explains the Nice native. "In the mid-sixties, through cycling, I met Louis Nucéra." The future writer (1) became his friend and trained him on reports. "Without realizing it, he gave me the virus!"

"I was hired to wage war on Nice-Matin"

The young man waited for his chance. She smiled at him in 1966. "Gaston Defferre, mayor of Marseille and owner of the newspaper Le Provençal , had decided to challenge Bavastro on his own turf. I was hired in Nice to wage war on Nice-Matin ! The experience only lasted a year, but it allowed me to bounce back at Le Provençal in Avignon, then to be recruited at Nice-Matin in 1969. The first article I was assigned was on the death of General de Gaulle."

Given his nascent convictions, the detail is piquant. "It was a period of great social upheaval," he sums up. " I was still searching for myself at that time, and I don't know if I would have shifted so clearly to the left without Michel Bavastro. It's thanks to him that I became a communist!"

André Baudin lets his sentence linger for a few moments, as if to exhale all its flavors. "Yes ," he continues, nodding his head, "it was the example of this patriarchal, intransigent management that pushed me to get involved. At the beginning of the seventies, I created an SNJ-CGT union section, then a PCF cell. Immediately, it was war!"

The fighting, sometimes violent, lasted for about ten years. "We have somewhat forgotten, but the history of Nice-Matin , at that time, was punctuated by social conflicts. Journalists, administrative employees and workers from the Book industry took turns demanding better treatment. The newspaper's situation was flourishing; it seemed normal to us to claim the fruits of our own labor."

In 1981, with his friend Sylvain Tassi , the journalist "came close to being sentenced to prison".

"Michel Bavastro took advantage of a leaflet written in Paris, which he considered defamatory, to demand our dismissal. Unfortunately, since we were union delegates, he needed the green light from the Works Council. To his great surprise, he didn't get it! The CGC [General Confederation of Managers, Editor's note], within which I had a true friend, Patrick Andrieu, refused to take part in the vote, judging that it was contrary to union ethics to vote for the dismissal of a staff representative. Bavastro tried to force it through by activating all avenues of appeal. Even the Minister of Labor... who lost his job before me! Between the beginning and the end of this conflict, there was the election of François Mitterrand on May 10, 1981. After that, the man we nicknamed "the Cobra" no longer had any chance of getting satisfaction."

A difficult period

However, the following year, Baudin decided to pack his bags. "A friend wanted me to manage a station in Martigues, Radio Maritima, which was born from the liberalization of the airwaves. This adventure really tempted me. I asked to benefit from the conscience clause (2) by explaining that I had not signed up to work for an opposition newspaper! I don't know if this reason made Michel Bavastro smile... The fact is that he didn't try to keep me. He told me: 'The less I see of you, the better I feel.'"

The next two years were disappointing. "I clashed with the communist mayor of Martigues, Paul Lombard, who confused information with propaganda," he sighs. "In 1985, I returned to the written press via Var-Matin République, Nice-Matin's competitor in the Var. It was a difficult period, because I felt like I was going backwards. Then I got back to work, eventually becoming head of the sports department."

Another bombshell in 1998: Michel Bavastro sold his shares to the Lagardère Group. The latter became the new owner of Nice-Matin .

"The decision to merge the two Var dailies has been made," says André Baudin. "The responsibility for this new unified newspaper has been entrusted to Patrick Andrieu, the man who had exposed himself to the wrath of the 'Old Man' to defend me. I agreed to help him for a few months, as an executive assistant, then I asserted my rights to early retirement... at 56!"

Over the next quarter century, the journalist wrote several books (3) while keeping a close eye on the career of his daughter Julie, now a reporter for our magazine. "Three generations in the business, it's starting to add up," he concludes. "You'd think it was in our blood!"

1. Prix Interallié in 1981 for his novel Chemin de la Lanterne (Grasset editions), Grand Prix of the French Academy in 1993, he died in 2000.

2. This clause allows a salaried journalist to leave his job on his own initiative and without notice, while still receiving statutory compensation.

3. In particular, essays on cycling confronted with doping ( The Uncertain Epic ), on football ( The Blue World Cup ), on Bernard Tapie ( The Marseille Earthquake and The Tapie Syndrome ), on his favorites ( Venice ) and a historical testimony ( Massoud ).