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Éric Zemmour claims 3 million euros from his former publisher Albin Michel

Éric Zemmour claimed three million euros in damages from his former publisher Albin Michel for wrongful breach of contract, in a trial on Wednesday.

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Éric Zemmour claims 3 million euros from his former publisher Albin Michel

Éric Zemmour claimed three million euros in damages from his former publisher Albin Michel for wrongful breach of contract, in a trial on Wednesday.

Albin Michel had given up, by a letter of June 2021, to publish a sixth book by the polemicist, France did not say its last word, after having published five others. The publishing house had invoked the author's intention to "become a politician" and "make his next book a key element of his candidacy" for the presidential election, where he was eliminated in the first round.

Mr. Zemmour, via his company, SARL Rubempré, brought the case before the Paris court. He was not at the hearing. “Albin Michel made a unilateral termination” of a publishing contract signed in 2015, and this “termination is illegal”, affirmed in court Arnaud de Senilhes, the lawyer for the founder of the far-right party Reconquest. He also denounced “political censorship”. “Deprived of a publisher, it was impossible to find a publisher in the time allowed to release this book on the date it wanted, in September 2021”, he underlined. “We had to invent ourselves as a publisher”.

Me de Senilhes noted that if it had been edited by Albin Michel, the book "would not have had a spelling error from the first page", which "caused dozens of articles".

The publishing house claims that Mr. Zemmour did not respect the contractual deadlines, namely to submit a manuscript in 2019. However, in the spring of 2021, when no beginning of a manuscript had been transmitted, “suddenly Mr. Zemmour tells us: it will be a campaign book,” explained Albin Michel's lawyer, Christophe Bigot. "Mr. Zemmour cannot impose that on its publisher, when the contractual deadline for delivery has expired (…) Albin Michel editions answer: no, we are not interested in that, ”he added.

For Albin Michel, "all this was remote-controlled", Mr. Zemmour preferring to self-publish because "he sees the full potential of his book". The book sold 272,000 copies in 2021. Albin Michel estimates that instead of earning a million euros with this house, by selling 300,000 copies, the author pocketed “almost” double that in published by Rubempré editions.

The procedure made it possible to learn that Mr. Zemmour was assisted in the writing of his works by the historian Jacques de Saint Victor. Judgment was reserved for October 25.

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