France pays tribute to Bernard Tapie, the huckster who died fighting
French politicians and media have been lavish in their tributes to French business tycoon, actor and politician Bernard Tapie, who died on Sunday of cancer. His brushes with the law brought controversy but his dare-devil desire to succeed outside the conventional corridors of power made him a popular figure in France.
Issued on:
Tapie’s death prompted condolences from across the political spectrum. President Macron hailed an “ambition, energy and enthusiasm that were a source of inspiration for generations of French people”.
Tapie was a minister in Mitterand's Socialist government for a couple of months in the 1990s and never missed an opportunity to decry the far-right National Front, but even FN founder Jean-Marie Le Pen lauded the magnate's "exceptional character".
Admirers placed flowers outside Tapie’s mansion in Paris's upmarket Saint-Germain neighbourhood where he died after a four-year battle with cancer.
American dream
Tapie rose from modest beginnings to become one of France’s most successful businessmen, buying up and reviving dozens of failing companies, while showing his millions in a very un-French way.
A huge sports fan, he was the longtime chair of Olympique de Marseille (OM) football club and bought a cycling team that twice won the Tour de France.
A large black-and-white portrait of Tapie was erected outside the OM’s Velodrome stadium in Marseille on Sunday, with fans gathering at the makeshift memorial.
Sporting daily L’Equipe waxed lyrical, saying Tapie would remain “forever the boss” while marvelling at the "incredibly romantic existence" of a man "driven by an irrepressible desire to rise and unusual powers of seduction".
Tapie continually drew on those powers whether in politics, business, or acting. But charm wasn't always enough.
Sympathetic bandit
Tapie’s empire took a spectacular dive in the late 1990s, beginnning with the match-fixing trial which saw him serve time behind bars.
He was also found guilty in a series of cases for corruption, tax fraud and misusing corporate assets.
The biggest scandal related to his purchase of the German sports brand Adidas in 1990. He was forced to sell the company just a few years later to the state-owned bank Credit Lyonnais.
He initially won his case but was later found guilty of fraud and ordered to repay some 403 million euros in arbitration.
Despite the legal shenanigans, the French had a soft spot for him.
Left-leaning daily Libération wrote on Monday of the “Tapie mystery” – and asked why the French are "so indulgent" towards the billionaire huckster.
It concluded that Tapie evokes a France “in transition”: worried about the future but "comforted by identifying with a sympathetic bandit who, by daring to do everything, made France believe that it was stronger than it was".
Liar and Victim
Many were seduced by the image he gave of the boss – tough but charming, one of the boys.
"Despite a questionable business record, Bernard Tapie played his greatest role in humanising and rehabilitating the image of the boss in the eyes of the French," Le Courrier Picard wrote. "He let people think that anyone could start from nothing, succeed and even make a fortune.”
"The showman was out of the ordinary,” wrote L'Est Républicain. “Both a liar and a victim, he didn’t embody success, he instilled in each of us this magnificent idea of making the improbable always possible.”
For Le Figaro daily, Tapie's rise and fall "mirrored the contradictions and fractures in France’s own history".
The paper described him as "half Count of Monte Cristo, half Jean Valjean", referring to the protagonist of Hugo's Les Misérables in his fight to lead a normal life after being jailed for stealing.
"Tapie wrote his own legend. He mastered each chapter to the end, because no one could dictate his conduct,” wrote Le Figaro.
Dare-devil
The man with a "thousand lives" is gone, wrote Le Monde. "He has left a mark on our society, a flamboyant and sulphurous imprint, which everyone will appreciate according to their own tastes."
But "the man who dared everything" was lucid about his shortcomings. In a book published this year – Bernard Tapie: Lessons of Life, Death and Love – he called the Adidas sale “the biggest” of all the “stupid mistakes” in his career.
Many of his companies are still facing liquidation and forced asset sales to repay the 403 million euros arbitration money he was deemed to owe.
A funeral mass will be held for him at Sainte Marie-Majeure Cathedral in Marseille on Friday.
Bernard Tapie will be buried in Marseille’s Mazargues cemetery.
Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning
Subscribe