Caroline Monnot

Caroline Monnot, born on October 1, 1965, in Champigny-sur-Marne, is a French journalist. Since January 2021, she has been the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Le Monde. She grew up in Champigny-sur-Marne, and her parents came from modest backgrounds.

Although admitted to HEC (a prestigious French business school), she soon lost interest in marketing and finance and shifted her focus to journalism. She graduated from the Institute of Political Studies in Paris (Sciences Po) in 1988 and the Paris Center for Journalism Training (CFJ) in 1989.

She was hired by Le Monde in July 1989 to cover the "steel and machine tool" section, later moving on to parliamentary news, business leaders, and the political left.

As deputy head of Le Monde's political department, she co-founded the blog “Droite(s) extrême(s)” with her colleague Abel Mestre in November 2009. Both journalists reported facing intimidation as a result of their investigations into the far-right.

In 2011, she co-authored an investigation with Abel Mestre on the networks of the National Front (FN). These two specialists in the far-right analyzed the influence games surrounding Marine Le Pen. Libération praised the book for revealing that behind Marine Le Pen's political rebranding were close associates from the fringes of the far-right, some of whom had ties to radical groups like the former Groupe Union Défense.

Monnot became head of the newspaper's political department in 2016, deputy editor-in-chief in 2018, and on October 7, 2020, she was appointed to succeed Luc Bronner as editor-in-chief in January 2021.

In January 2021, Monnot issued an apology for publishing a cartoon by Xavier Gorce that could be interpreted as trivializing the seriousness of incest, using inappropriate terms regarding victims and transgender individuals. Xavier Gorce left Le Monde afterward, stating that "freedom cannot be negotiated" and criticizing pressure from social media activists.