Known for his scathing political chronicles, he died on Monday at the age of 90, announced his family.
Le Monde with AFP
Figure of political journalism, writer, mythical voice of RTL for almost three decades, journalist Philippe Alexandre died on Monday October 31 at the age of 90. The journalist died “peacefully” in the Touquet, announced his daughter Agnès Alexandre-Collier to the agency France-Presse, with the agreement of his sister and his mother-in-law, the journalist and writer Béatrix de l’Aulnoit .
Columnist in RTL from 1969 to 1996, he also went through television alongside Serge July and was immortalized by “Les Guignols de l’Info”, which paid tribute to social networks on Monday. His chronicles on RTL, listened to each morning by hundreds of thousands of listeners, were feared by policies of all stripes.
Philippe Alexandre has just left us.
Sound iconic duo with Serge July will miss … 😔 🖤 🖤 https://t.co/yq4idisdwh
Many political and journalistic figures reacted to the announcement of his death. “With Philippe Alexandre, the French press loses a ferocious pen, an implacable investigator, a free voice. Feared and admired, he was for many French people, one of the most familiar faces in political journalism,” reacted on Monday evening Twitter President Emmanuel Macron.
With Philippe Alexandre, the French press loses a fierce pen, an implacable investigator, a free voice. Redout… https://t.co/gafrwjwitm
“With his talent, his liveliness, his free word and the percussion of his editorials, he marked the history of the station”, praised his RTL side. “We were far from still agreeing, but he knew everything about politics, and his mind was as lively as his pen was sharp. It is a great voice that disappears,” wrote the president of the court of the court of Accounts and former socialist minister Pierre Moscovici, on Twitter.
accustomed to defamation trials
Born in Paris on March 14, 1932 in a family of Jewish origin, whose story he told in my more than French tribe (2017), Philippe Alexandre began in journalism in 1951 as editor in Combat. He joined RTL in 1969 after going through the liberated Oise, days of France, the new Candide or Le Figaro literary.
“The man with defamation trials as numerous as his political works”, as the world called it, spared no head of state. He said that the Elysée had asked for his resignation in 1982 “to appease François Mitterrand to whom my chronicles gave hives”.
On television, from 1989 to 1992, he co -hosting the political program “Le Débat”, on TF1, with Serge July and Michèle Cotta. Then, in the 90s, “Sunday evening”, on France 3, with Christine Ockrent and Mr. July. He slammed the RTL door in 1996, after the merger of the Luxembourg company of Télédiffusion (CLT) with the German group Bertelsmann.
Having become a political columnist in BFM, France 3 and for various magazines, Philippe Alexandre published around twenty works, including campaign landscapes (on the presidential election of 1988, prize today), too many taxes kills Employment (2005) or Dictionary in love with politics (2011). He co-wrote several works with his partner Béatrix de l’Aulnoit, including a pamphlet against Martine Aubry, the 35-hour lady (2002), who provoked the fury of the socialist official.
Philippe Alexandre will be buried in the Touquet cemetery, in Pas-de-Calais, Saturday, said his family.