In October 1980, at the height of his glory, Coluche decided to run for president in 1981. He made this decision after being kicked out of Europe 1 – where, every day, he hosted the slices with great success of the afternoon and ridiculed the then president, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, entangled in the diamond affair -, then of RMC, from where he was fired after ten days for making fun of the Prince of Monaco and the Rock. Banned from the media, he then announces his candidacy for the election which will, in fact, offer him a platform.

What starts out as a joke soon becomes serious. Advised by a few friends from the far left (Romain Goupil and Maurice Najman) and supported by the Hara Kiri team, Coluche rallied some intellectuals (Alain Touraine, Félix Guattari, Gilles Deleuze, Pierre Bourdieu) and many French, who recognize themselves in their banter and outspokenness.

In a few months, he is credited with 16% of voting intentions. A score that worries both the right and the left. But in April 1981, a month before the election that would bring François Mitterrand to power, Coluche announced his withdrawal from the presidential race, to the chagrin of his support committees.

Death threats

What happened ? In their documentary Coluche, a clown enemy of the State, Jean-Louis Perez and Michel Despratx recount, with the help of numerous testimonies, how the State asked General Intelligence (RG) to use all means to force the funny to give up his candidacy.

For the first time, the authors show the file of RG n° 817706 in the name of Michel Colucci, where his criminal record and all his daily activities are recorded. An operation closely supervised by the “management group” of the RG, which did not hesitate to get out of the nails of legality and to use very muscular means, as revealed by several cops who participated in this destabilization. “It is true that the ‘management group’ was a state within a police state,” admits Yves Bertrand, director of RG at the time.

On several occasions, Coluche received death threats signed “Honneur de la police”, a commando which had claimed responsibility for the assassination of Pierre Goldman – far-left activist (half-brother of singer Jean-Jacques Goldman) -, the September 20, 1979.

The authors also show that the surveillance of Coluche did not stop after the withdrawal of his candidacy. She continued until June 19, 1986, the day of her fatal motorcycle accident. The next day, the anonymous hand of a police officer wrote on the file: “DCD”.