“He had a fairly arrogant attitude”: the president of the TNT commission of inquiry attacks Barthès at Hanouna

The appearance of MP Quentin Bataillon in the show “Touche pas à mon poste” on C8 leaves some of his colleagues perplexed. The president of the commission of inquiry into TNT frequencies (from the presidential majority) took stock of his work this Tuesday, April 2 on the stage of Cyril Hanouna, who was himself interviewed by this commission... and in passing scratching a competing host, Yann Barthès, also heard by the commission.

“I think it was the first time I got angry, he had a fairly arrogant attitude from the start, he refused to answer our questions,” said Quentin Bataillon about the presenter of Quotidien, on TMC. He then criticized the posture of the LFI deputies during the commission of inquiry, including its rapporteur Aurélien Saintoul: he will write his report "alone" by the beginning of May, and "I imagine that it will be marked", tackled Quentin Bataillon, wishing to “get away from the witch hunt, the hunt for presenters, journalists, channels”.

“We need to make recommendations on the framework” for the choice of frequency holders, he said. “We don’t go into people’s homes to tell them what is good, what is bad” and, “sometimes, the contempt that some people may have for your show is transferred to those who watch it,” argued the parliamentarian . With Aurélien Saintoul, he claims to have “done everything to keep relations as cordial as possible”, while relations have become strained over the course of the hearings, from that of Vincent Bolloré – billionaire who controls the Canal group including C8 – to that of the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati.

Aurélien Saintoul joked about X about the invitation from Quentin Bataillon in “TPMP”: “Thank you for your experimental approach to move the commission of inquiry forward. Don’t forget to check if we can now name or even criticize V. Bolloré in TPMP without risking being attacked by C. Hanouna,” he added in reference to an episode from November 2022 where LFI deputy Louis Boyard , guest on the show, was insulted live. This resulted in a record fine of 3.5 million euros for C8.

Several deputies then criticized the intervention of the president of the commission of inquiry on the channel. For Alexis Corbière (LFI), “no one can believe in their independence and objectivity anymore”. “Here’s another one who is damaging Parliament and getting tired of destroying democracy,” according to environmentalist Benjamin Lucas, also on X. Olivier Faure attacked Quentin Bataillon on his own arrogance of “going to Hanouna to spit on Barthès while chairing a commission of inquiry on TNT”.

In addition to these notable outings, the deputy did educational work about the work of his commission, which was initiated by LFI deputies in the fall to shed light on the allocation of DTT frequencies, including those of C8 and CNews put back into play this year.