80 years of "Nice-Matin": Jean-Marc Raffaelli, island Swiss army knife

Jean-Marc Raffaelli's memory wanders halfway between Treasure Island and Ali Baba's cave. It features five presidents of the Republic, several writers, poet-singers, and a host of legendary artists. "I have a lucky star," jokes the Bastia-based journalist. Not insignificant in a profession where bad luck is considered professional misconduct.

His first stroke of luck , in 1980, was to be... fired by Le Provençal , which employed him as a freelancer. " Corse-Matin immediately approached me, " he smiles. "For a year, I worked under a pseudonym – Jean Paoli – because the two newspapers had signed a no-poaching agreement. I became a professional in October 1982 after an internship in Nice. I was tipped for Grasse, but I was finally transferred to Bastia! Phew..."

It quickly becomes clear: the writer is a "pen." A quality that the writer puts into perspective: "Writing is the only thing I know how to do! In real life, I'm not capable of changing a light bulb."

The young man trained through chance encounters. In 1981, he covered the reopening of the Bastia Opera House. "I attended the rehearsals of Verdi's La Traviata. I knew nothing about it, but I loved it! I became a true lover of opera." To the point of scheduling his vacations around the programming of La Scala and the Opéra Garnier.

Eclectic, Jean-Marc Raffaelli is also passionate about football and politics. "In 1977, when François ''Fanfan'' Félix scored the goal that qualified Bastia for the last 16 of the European Cup, I felt faint," he confesses. " I experienced unforgettable emotions in the stadiums, but also tragedies like the collapse of the stand at Furiani."

Memories come flooding back. He continues: "Politics came gradually. I had the privilege of interviewing our last five heads of state. The first, François Mitterrand, was in 1983; I was 25 years old! A special relationship was formed with Nicolas Sarkozy. He agreed to meet me on July 7, 2003, the day after the lost referendum on the island's new status."

The smile on his baby face widens. Stars? The island reporter has encountered hundreds of them. "Corsica is a tiny territory that has always attracted great talent," he sums up. "My luck is that here, they are often more available than elsewhere."

And he tells us... Jacques Dutronc, "who wouldn't let you ask the slightest question until you'd downed a bottle of champagne." Guillaume Depardieu, "met a year before his death. His girlfriend had just left him; he was in the middle of a depression. I couldn't leave until his sister Julie arrived." Claude Berri, "who kept complaining about the director of La Reine Margot, who couldn't stick to his budget. He said: ''Chéreau, he really lives up to his name!''"

He also mentions Jean d'Ormesson ( "He said that I was his favorite interviewer" ), Georges Moustaki ( "We talked in Erbalunga from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m." ), Claude Nougaro ( "Inexhaustible on the old port of Bastia" ), Léo Ferré ( "A lord in Tuscany" ). And then, so many other reports, without a name that stands out on the poster, but with "incredible castings" . He nods: "The municipal elections were mind-blowing times. We were following the campaign in our 360 municipalities, which meant 1,500 pains in the necks to manage. We were overwhelmed with phone calls, we were swamped with requests! A village councillor sent me his fully written interview himself. The first question he asked was: 'How do you explain that your record is so good?' I had to explain it to him..."

Raffaelli doesn't shy away from the tensions linked to the island's "particular context . " "In the 1980s and 1990s, you would attend a clandestine conference in the evening and be taken into custody the next day! Several agencies were raided. Sometimes you had to navigate around it..."

As in Pétillon's comic strip, L'Enquête corse : knowing who to ask questions to, but above all who not to ask them.

From a career that led him to deputy editor-in-chief in the 2010s, the journalist retains a wealth of privileged exchanges. "To do this job, you have to love people," he says as if it were obvious. And knowing how to let your lucky star guide you...