After a series of departures at France Inter, Charline Vanhoenacker promises to “adapt”
The host of “Grand Dimanche Soir” spoke out in a long text following the dismissal of her colleague Guillaume Meurice. Charline Vanhoenacker has spoken out after the dismissal of Guillaume Meurice. Charline Vanhoenacker has spoken out after the dismissal of Guillaume Meurice. RADIO – She chose her words carefully. The day after the announcement of Guillaume Meurice’s dismissal, Charline Vanhoenacker spoke out in a long text shared on social media, which you can read below. The journalist, a voice of France Inter for many seasons, praised her now former partner and indirectly criticized the decision made by the management.
Charline Vanhoenacker lost her “historic accomplice” on Tuesday, June 11. The Belgian journalist does not hide her disappointment in the long message she posted on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram. She first highlighted what Guillaume Meurice had brought to the airwaves of France Inter for over ten years. Starting with the fact that he, according to her, “ensured the plurality” of the airwaves and fulfilled a “public service mission” through his chronicles, as well as his microphone extended “to racists, impostors, homophobes, losers, Islamophobes…” allowing to “shed a humorous light on all the excesses of hate.”
In doing so, Charline Vanhoenacker directly questions the reason for Guillaume Meurice’s dismissal. He was indeed suspended and then fired by the management following a chronicle in which he likened the Israeli Prime Minister to “a Nazi without a foreskin.” A decision that Radio France boss Sibyle Veil justified by citing “repeated disloyalty” from Guillaume Meurice, after he repeated his joke on Benjamin Netanyahu on air in early May. The host of Grand Dimanche Soir, on the other hand, counters Sibyle Veil’s statements by arguing that Guillaume Meurice is “one of the main architects of France Inter’s insolent success” and that he “honored the public service.”
“My amputated troupe”
In her text, Charline Vanhoenacker also emotionally discusses her personal relationships with Guillaume Meurice, and her sadness at losing her ally of over a decade. And he is not alone. Indeed, as the journalist and comedian mentions at the end of her speech referring to her “amputated troupe,” other members of her “band” have decided to leave following the announcement of Guillaume Meurice’s dismissal. Aymeric Lompret, a pillar of the quartet in charge of Grand Dimanche Soir, announced his resignation, as did the comedian and composer Giedrė Barauskaitė, and Laélia Véron, a linguist and researcher who has been involved in Grand Dimanche Soir since 2021. A phenomenon that goes beyond the “Charline’s band” as shortly after, the comedian Thomas VDB also announced that he was leaving France Inter.
Charline Vanhoenacker has not followed suit, for now, but as she points out at the very end of her message: she “takes note” and plans to “adapt.”