Robert Appy

Robert Eugène Appy was French born Brazilian journalist and writer for the 'State' since 1953.
Robert Appy was born on June 1, 1926 in Cavaillon, a town in the department of Vaucluse, France, which keeps traces of the Roman invasions. He did his course of Letters in the Faculty of Grenoble. He was also educated in Scholastic Philosophy by the Catholic Faculty of Lyon and in Economics by the Institute of Political Studies of Paris (Sciences Po).


Appy was appointed by journalist Gilles Lapouge to replace him after deciding to return to France after three years of writing the newspaper. The interview for the job was made by the French historian Fernand Braudel, who later gave name to the institute that Appy helped to found. The first text, a few days later, was an analysis of the Soviet economy under Gheorghi Malenkov, divided into two articles, published on November 15 and 18, 1953.
Before the year was over, Appy had already written commentaries on subjects as diverse as the Belgian Congo and foreign capitals, gold hoarding in the world, the economic crisis of the Brazilian film company Vera Cruz, and the Japanese offensive on international markets.  Not only were the finance ministers of Brazil seeking to know their opinion about the most delicate economic problems of the country.

Appy was also a frequent interlocutor for the Managing Directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), so much so that he became one of the first journalists to anticipate that the Toronto (Canada) meeting in 1982 would irreversibly change the relationship between industrialized and emerging countries.

He began his career in the newspaper Combat, of the French capital. Initially, he was a writer specializing in university matters. He was later promoted to writing secretary. His seriousness in each subject allowed his opinions to be based on a very realistic idea of the issues and precise data he collected in his carefully organized personal archive. His performance made even more effective with the creation by Estad the in 1957, the Economic Actuality section, the first editorship of Economy of the Brazilian press, led by Austrian journalist Frederico Heller. Despite having integrated very quickly to the State and to Brazil, Appy maintained collaborations in the French magazines Esprit and Revue des Sciences Politiques . He was also correspondent of the French newspapers Le Monde and  L'Information Économique and Financière .

For many years, he served as economic adviser to the French and Italian banks for South America. He also worked for Visão magazine and advised Sudameris bank. He received a series of international and Brazilian commendations and decorations. Among others are the Legion of Honor, awarded by the French government, the National Order of Merit of France, the Presaenza d'Italia in Brasile Award, the Italian Circolo Award, the Abamec Prize and the BNP Paribas Citizenship Award.

In his youth, Appy participated in the resistance to the German occupation of France. In Brazil, he helped friends imprisoned during the military dictatorship.

In 1987, he published the book Capital Estrangeiro & Brasil: a Dossiê , whose presentation began with a controversial phrase: "This book is in favor of foreign capital, or rather ... of Brazil." And, throughout the work, he explained the apparent contradiction: in the capitalist system, capital has no homeland and its function is to contribute to the development of the economy, regardless of geographic location.

He had close friendships with authorities he met throughout his career, including former French President Giscard d'Estaing, former President of the European Commission Jacques Delors and former IMF directors Michel Camdessus and Jacques de la Rosière.
Although he had written in the newspaper since 1953, Appy officially joined the state in October 1957 as a translator. In May of 1964, he became editor of the Economics Department, becoming the editor of the section in December 1974. Afterwards, he became an editorialist. Retired in February 1996, he was rehired the next day, in the same position.
Even with difficulties of locomotion, it appeared daily to the headquarters of the newspaper for the meeting of the editorialists with Ruy Mesquita, that passed away on 21 May. He kept this routine until the day before he was hospitalized. He even sent several hospital and home editorials.

He had active participation in several entities. He was a member of the boards of the Commercial Association of Sao Paulo, Fecomércio, Liceu Pasteur and collaborated with a non-governmental organization (NGO). Although reserved, he would not let go of good humor.

He died on June 7, 2013 at the age of 87.