Geoffroy Lejeune knows how Nigel Farage feels. Like the former Ukip leader turned TV host, Lejeune’s ‘values’ have made him persona non grata among France’s progressive elite. The 34-year-old journalist was last month appointed editor-in-chief of Journal du Dimanche (JDD), France’s only dedicated Sunday newspaper with a circulation of 140,000.
Newspaper staff were outraged. They downed tools, and have been striking now for five weeks. The papers’ journalists remain ‘more determined than ever’, they say, to continue their industrial action.
The real danger to democracy aren’t the likes of Lejeune or Farage, whatever their opinions may be
The problem is Lejeune’s politics. He is described as ‘far right’, and counts among his friends Marion Marechal. The niece of Marine Le Pen, she resigned as a National Front MP, as it then was, to set up a private university, before re-launching her political career as vice-president of Eric Zemmour’s Reconquest party. Lejeune threw his weight behind Zemmour in last year’s presidential election, endorsing the right-wing candidate via his editorship of Valeurs Actuelles.
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