France's Human Rights League and CGT Spectacle slam Canal+'s 'unacceptable, brutal' move to stop funding signatories of an anti‑Bolloré op‑ed.
A reaction that is not going down well. The Human Rights League (LDH) and the CGT Spectacle union announced on Saturday that they are bringing a civil action before the Nanterre judicial court against Canal+. The two organisations denounce what they call "discrimination" targeting the signatories of an anti-Bolloré op-ed, after the group decided to stop working with them.
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"Canal+ will appear in court for breaking the law", say CGT Spectacle and the LDH in a statement titled "No discrimination has any place in cinema".
In the text, seen by Euronews, they describe the "unacceptable and brutal decision" by Maxime Saada, chairman of the Canal+ executive board, accusing him of "discriminating on the basis of political and trade-union expression in order to muzzle the voices in the industry that are speaking out against Vincent Bolloré’s growing grip on the entire chain of film production and distribution".
"If some people go so far as to call Canal+ 'crypto-fascist', then I cannot accept working with them", the head of Canal+ said last Sunday. Canal+ is a major player in financing French cinema and belongs to the empire of conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré.
For the LDH and CGT Spectacle, this is not a "knee-jerk reaction" from Maxime Saada in response to criticism from some 600 signatories of the op-ed. He "is fully aware of how essential the group is to film financing in France and of the dependence of the various players in the sector", the statement continues.
The civil action, led by lawyer Arié Alimi, pursues two goals: to have Maxime Saada’s decision annulled, "subject to penalty payments", and to have a representative appointed to record any discrimination within the Canal+ group.
Contacted by Euronews, LDH president Nathalie Tehio explains that this would be a mission of "vigilance", which could be entrusted to an employee of the group or to an external party: "It is up to the court to decide," she adds.
Action before the European Commission is also being considered, without a precise timetable, to sanction what they describe as an "abuse of economic dependence" by Canal+, which the organisations say is part of a broader trend towards concentration of the cultural industries around Vincent Bolloré.
The Breton billionaire controls a vast media and cultural industries group, including television and radio channels, publishing houses, as well as production and distribution activities in the audiovisual and film sectors.
International figures, including Javier Bardem and Ken Loach, have joined the mobilisation of the "Zapper Bolloré" collective.
According to Nathalie Tehio, the fact that the LDH and CGT announcement comes just hours before the 2026 Palme d’Or is no coincidence, since Canal+’s response came during the Cannes Film Festival.
"It is a threat to the profession as a whole", she concludes.
