"Someone with knowledge and conscience": François Bayrou's tribute to Alain Duhamel for his last daily show

Words of affection for an immovable monument of French political journalism . Alain Duhamel participated this Thursday, July 3, in his last daily broadcast on BFMTV. For this occasion, the man who has spent more than 60 years chronicling the mandates of all the presidents of the Fifth Republic , from Charles de Gaulle to Emmanuel Macron, was treated to a vibrant tribute from his guest, François Bayrou.

"There aren't many great journalists in France. And what is a great journalist? Someone who has knowledge and a conscience," the Prime Minister emphasized on our channel.

"And I have observed Alain Duhamel for a long time," the centrist added, explaining that he "shared with him concerns about France and sometimes enthusiasm."

"But I always noted his scruples about starting from the truth to arrive at the general interest," the mayor of Pau emphasizes.

"This personality is rich enough for us to be able to honor together the years spent defending a certain ethic and I hope that we will have many other opportunities to listen to him and to find him in other formats," François Bayrou concluded.

The two men have displayed a certain closeness for years. In February 2007, in the midst of the presidential campaign, a video dating from November 2006 was published by publisher Guy Birenbaum. It shows Alain Duhamel explaining to students at Sciences Po in Paris his intention to vote for François Bayrou.

In the aftermath, the journalist was suspended from France Télévisions and RTL. The move displeased the centrist, who was on a rise in the polls . "It's a choice that, it seems to me, calls into question many of the principles of French society," explained the president of the Modem during a trip to Poitiers.

In his memoirs, Journal d'un observateur (2018), Alain Duhamel described himself as intellectually close to Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, as well as to Raymond Barre and Édouard Balladur, Lionel Jospin, and Jacques Delors. He also spoke of his "baroque friendship" with François Mitterrand.