Philippe Alexandre: death of the journalist, former editorial writer for RTL, at the age of 90

Journalist Philippe Alexandre, former political columnist at RTL, died Monday, October 31 at the age of 90 in Le Touquet, his family announced the same day.

Philippe Alexandre was a "pioneer of radio scratch hair and drypoint lines", said his accomplice on television, co-founder of Liberation, Serge July. From 1969 to 1996, his columns on RTL, listened to every morning by hundreds of thousands of listeners, were feared by politicians of all stripes.

Before joining RTL, he had started in journalism in 1951 as an editor at Combat and then worked for L'Oise Librée, Jours de France, Le Nouveau Candide and Le Figaro Littéraire. On television, from 1989 to 1992, he co-hosted the political program Le Débat on TF1, with Serge July and Michèle Cotta, then, in the 1990s, Dimanche soir on France 3 with Christine Ockrent and always Serge July.

He left RTL in 1996, after the merger of the Compagnie luxembourgeoise de télédiffusion (CLT) with the German group Bertelsmann. Having become a political columnist for BFM TV, France 3 and for various magazines, Philippe Alexandre has also published around twenty books.