Laurent Mauduit

Journaliste au Quotidien de Paris (1979), puis à l'Agence centrale de Presse (1979-1984), à La Tribune de l'économie (1984-1990). Chef du service économique de Libération (1991-1994) avant d'entrer au Monde, en charge de la politique économique française (1995-1999), puis rédacteur en chef du service Entreprises (1999-2003), directeur adjoint de la rédaction (2003-2005), éditorialiste (2006). Quitte Le Monde, en décembre 2006, en désaccord avec la politique éditoriale. Cofondateur de Mediapart. Auteur des ouvrages suivants:

 - Histoire secrète des dossiers noirs de la gauche (en collaboration), Éditions Alain Moreau, 1986

- La grande méprise (en collaboration), Grasset, 1996

- La gauche imaginaire et le nouveau capitalisme (avec Gérard Desportes), Grasset, 1999

 - Voyage indiscret au cœur de l’État (en collaboration), Éditions Le Monde-Le Pré aux Clercs, 2000

 - Les stock-options (avec Philippe Jaffré), Grasset, 2002

- L’adieu au socialisme (avec Gérard Desportes), Grasset, 2002

- Jacques le Petit, Stock, 2005

- Petits conseils, Stock, 2007

- Sous le Tapie, Stock, 2008

- Les 110 propositions, 1981-2011 - Manuel critique à l'usage des citoyens qui rêvent encore de changer la vie, Don Quichotte, 2011 (ouvrage collectif de la rédaction de Mediapart) 

- Les imposteurs de l'économie, Editions Gawsewitch, 2012 (Réédité en 2013 par les Editions Pocket, puis en 2016 en version numérique par les Éditions Don Quichotte)

- L'étrange capitulation, Editions Gawsewitch, 2013. Cet ouvrage a été réédité en version numérique en mars 2015 par les éditions Don Quichotte.

- Tapie, le scandale d'Etat, Stock, 2013 - Cette affaire a aussi donné lieu à un documentaire Tapie et la République - Autopsie d'un scandale d'Etat (70', Nova Production), que j'ai co-écrit avec le réalisateur Thomas Johnson et qui a été diffusé la première fois par France 5 le 31 mars 2015.

- A tous ceux qui ne se résignent pas à la débâcle qui vient (Don Quichotte, 2014)

- Main basse sur l'information (Don Quichotte, 2016)

- La Caste. Enquête sur cette haute fonction publique qui a pris le pouvoir (La Découverte, septembre 2018).

- Prédations. Histoire des privatisations des biens publics,  (La Découverte, septembre 2020).

- Trotskisme, Histoires secrètes - De Lambert à Mélenchon (avec Denis Sieffert), Les petits matins, 2024.

- Vous ne me trouverez pas sur Amazon (Divergences, 2024)

All his articles

  • How IMF boss Christine Lagarde lied to judges in Tapie affair

    France — Investigation

    When the head of the International Monetary Fund appeared before judges investigating the Tapie affair, she told them she had never read key memos from a state body that was advising her against the controversial arbitration that eventually paid out 404 million euros of taxpayers' money. But that is not what she told French MPs five years ago. Mediapart's Laurent Mauduit reports on how the former finance minister appears to have misled the criminal investigation.

    by Laurent Mauduit

  • Tapie-Lagarde affair: arbitration judge held for questioning

    France

    Just days after IMF boss Christine Lagarde faced questioning over her role in the affair, the saga of the 403 million euro award made to colourful businessman Bernard Tapie has taken a new twist with the news that one of the arbitration judges who agreed the payout has been held for questioning. Tapie's lawyer is also being questioned in custody, as investigators probe allegations of a conflict of interest during the arbitration. Michel Deléan and Laurent Mauduit report on the latest developments.

    by Michel Deléan and Laurent Mauduit

  • How IMF chief Lagarde narrowly escaped being placed under formal investigation in Tapie probe

    International — Investigation

    French magistrates on Friday designated International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde as an ‘assisted witness’ in their investigation into the conditions of a payout, when she was French finance minister, of more than 400 million euros to controversial tycoon Bernard Tapie. Mediapart has learnt from several well-placed sources the reasons why the judges backed off from placing her under formal investigation, a move originally favoured by two of the three magistrates leading the investigation. These are said to include an extraordinary last-minute public statement in support of Lagarde by French finance minister Pierre Moscovici (pictured top left with Lagarde), and a reported change to her previous account that she managed the Tapie case without interference from the presidential office.

    by Laurent Mauduit

  • French judges to question IMF chief Lagarde in May over suspected 'misappropriation of public funds'

    International — Investigation

    International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde (pictured) is to be questioned next month by French judges investigating a case of 'misappropriation of public funds' and 'aiding and abetting falsification' concerning an award from public funds of 403 million euros paid to controversial French tycoon Bernard Tapie when Lagarde was French finance minister, Mediapart can reveal. According to well-informed sources contacted by Mediapart she wil be interrogated on May 23rd, when Lagarde faces being formally placed under investigation - a status one step short of being charged – by the magistrates from the Court of Justice of the Republic, a special French court which is designated to investigate suspected malpractice by government members in the course of their duties. Laurent Mauduit reports.

    by Laurent Mauduit

  • 'There was no cover-up': French finance minister Moscovici on his role in the Cahuzac scandal

    France — Interview

    French finance minister Pierre Moscovici is at the centre of allegations that the government was involved in a cover-up to support Jérôme Cahuzac after Mediapart revealed last December that the then-budget minister, leading a crackdown on tax fraud, held a secret bank account abroad. In this lengthy interview with Mediapart’s Laurent Mauduit and Martine Orange, Moscovici defends his role during the four months in which he stood by Cahuzac, despite the mounting evidence presented by Mediapart that his junior minister and one-time friend consistently lied about holding hidden funds abroad. Moscovici reveals that the former budget minister, who finally confessed earlier this month, after repeated denials, to holding the account, declined to provide a written statement requested by tax authorities last December as to whether he held or not a secret account. But surprisingly that did not cause alarm among his colleagues. “Faced with the firmness and the number of his denials,” Moscovici says, “I had the tendency and the wish to believe Jérôme Cahuzac.”  

    by Laurent Mauduit and Martine Orange

  • The changing face of French horse racing – a mirror image of capitalism in France

    France

    The world of French horse racing is undergoing a revolution. Money is pouring in from Qatar and other Gulf states, while deregulation of the sector is encouraging more and more online betting – at the risk of encouraging more problems of gambling addiction. Few outside the racing industry have taken much notice of the transformation. But, as Laurent Mauduit argues, it is a reflection of the wider changes that are also affecting the world of French capitalism.

    by Laurent Mauduit

  • IMF boss Christine Lagarde to appear before French judges

    International

    The head of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde is to appear soon before senior French judges over an investigation into allegations that as French finance minister she was involved in 'aiding and abetting falsification', Mediapart can reveal. The IMF boss is also facing claims that she was involved in the 'misappropriation of public funds'. The affair concerns the controversial decision to use an arbitration process that in 2008 awarded French businessman Bernard Tapie a 403 million-euro payout from the public purse. Lagarde's lawyer is due to learn later this week whether she will be heard as an 'assisted witness'- or be formally placed under investigation. Laurent Mauduit reports.

    by Laurent Mauduit

  • Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to launch a 1 bln-euro private equity fund

    International — Investigation

    Nicolas Sarkozy is secretly attempting to set up a 1 billion-euro private equity fund, with plans for it to be based in London, and has begun prospecting wealthy individuals and institutions to back the scheme, financial and business sources have told Mediapart. According to concordant sources, the former French President (pictured) has made discreet contact with potential backers based in France, the Middle East and South-East Asia. Laurent Mauduit reports.

    by Laurent Mauduit

  • The day that French internet boss Xavier Niel made his fortune

    France — Investigation

    Xavier Niel earned significant amounts of cash in his early business career through investing in sex shops. But the billionaire’s real money was made in the telecommunications industry through his development and ownership of internet service provider Free. Here, in the second part of Mediapart's investigation into the influential businessman, Laurent Mauduit examines the crucial day on which Niel consolidated his control over the company that was to make his name and his fortune.

    by Laurent Mauduit

  • From penniless youth to billionaire – how Free boss Xavier Niel became one of France's most powerful men

    France — Investigation

    He is one of the most powerful and influential men in France today. Not only is Xavier Niel the founder and main shareholder of the country's second biggest internet service provider, Free, the billionaire businessman is also part-owner of the nation's best-known newspaper Le Monde. Such is his power – and personality – that he is not afraid to take on Google, while he is friends with some of the most prominent families who make up France's wealthy business elite. Yet in the late 1980s Niel was a 'brilliant but penniless' youth with no formal qualifications working as a technician in the twilight world of sex chatlines and dating in central Paris. In an investigation Mediapart charts Niel's career from his lucrative ownership of sex shops in Paris and Strasbourg to the day he seized total control of the company that would ultimately make him France’s 12th wealthiest man. Laurent Mauduit and Dan Israel report.

    by Laurent Mauduit

  • The verity of austerity as 2013 French economic outlook study points to grim year ahead

    France — Opinion

    The French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, INSEE, last week published its economic forecast for the first half of 2013, predicting France will remain on the edge of recession with zero growth, ever-rising unemployment, a collapse of purchasing power and consumption in tatters. Mediapart's economics and finance specialist Laurent Mauduit argues here that the INSEE study provides a damning appraisal of the French socialist government’s austerity policies and its obedience to the fiscal compact.

    by Laurent Mauduit

  • Millionaires, billionaires, the Elysée Palace and the battle for Marseille

    France

    A curious bidding war between some of France's richest men over the ownership of loss-making daily newspapers in the south of France is nothing more than a preliminary move in a political chess game for power in Marseille, Mediapart has learned. As Laurent Mauduit reports, the cast of characters includes colourful businessman Bernard Tapie, billionaire François Pinault and President François Hollande himself, with various political interests pulling strings behind the scenes, in a tale of shifting alliances, old friendships and enmities.

    by Laurent Mauduit

All his blog posts

Mediapart’s journalists also use their blogs, and participate in their own name to this space of debates, by confiding behind the scenes of investigations or reports, doubts or personal reactions to the news.

Laurent Mauduit (avatar)

Laurent Mauduit

Mediapart Journalist

164 Posts

5 Editions

  • Collaborations : enquête sur les milieux d’affaires et l’extrême droite

    Blog post

    C’est un enseignement constant de l’histoire : l’extrême droite n’a jamais pris le pouvoir sans que les milieux d’affaires n’y consentent ou l’y aident. J’ai donc jugé urgent d’écrire ce livre pour mettre au jour les connexions établies, souvent secrètes, et mesurer la gravité des menaces qui pèsent aujourd’hui sur notre démocratie.

  • Panthéonisation : les conditions posées par la famille de Marc Bloch

    Blog post

    À la suite de l’annonce par Emmanuel Macron de la prochaine panthéonisation du grand historien Marc Bloch, fusillé par la Gestapo le 16 juin 1944, sa famille a écrit une lettre à Emmanuel Macron lui faisant part de ses souhaits : Pas de religion ! Pas d'extrême droite ! Voici cette lettre dans sa version intégrale.

  • « Le refus de démocratie à LFI est une impasse politique pour la gauche »

    Blog post

    En janvier, lors de la publication « Trotskisme, histoires secrètes – De Lambert à Mélenchon », que j’ai co-écrit avec Denis Sieffert, c’est l’alerte que nous lancions à la faveur d’un entretien à Politis pour présenter notre ouvrage. Malheureusement, nous y voilà !

  • Les zigzags de Michel Broué entre politique, éthique et mathématiques

    Blog post

    Dans un livre inclassable et captivant, Michel Broué évoque tantôt les grands combats démocratiques auxquels il a participé, tantôt les mathématiques, son autre passion. Dénonçant dans un cas comme dans l’autre les idées reçues et l’apparent bon sens, il plaide en faveur de ce qu’il appelle une « subversion fertile ».

  • Vous ne me trouverez pas sur Amazon !

    Blog post

    Mon livre qui paraît vendredi sous ce titre ne sera effectivement pas distribué par l’oligopole américain, symbole des dérives du capitalisme financiarisé. Il a l’ambition d’alerter sur les dangers qui pèsent sur le livre et sur la presse, pris en tenaille entre les puissances d’argent et les géants du numérique que sont Amazon, Google ou encore Facebook.