In the midst of a national budgetary debacle, the president of the
region wants to be overzealous and cut the culture budget with achainsaw, endangering the entire sector and assuming an ideological war
against subsidized culture. ---- Before being censored, the Barnier
budget planned 38 million euros in cuts for the Pays de la Loire region.
But its president Christelle Morançais (Horizon) intends to be
overzealous and envisages 100 million in savings. To reach this sum, she
wants to literally bleed the culture budget, envisaging a 73% cut, or
around 20 million euros!
Cuts that also target sports (-75%) and gender equality (-90%!)[1],
jeopardizing the entire associative fabric and the sustainability of
family planning.
Concretely, in culture this decision would put many cultural venues in
mortal danger, some losing all their subsidies, essential to their
operation. This would be the case of the VIP, Scène de musique actuelle
(SMAC) in Saint Nazaire - 117,000 euros - or the Quai, Centre dramatique
national (CDN) in Angers - 200,000 euros. The unions estimate that
150,000 jobs are jeopardized by this decision.
These cuts actually make no economic sense: we know that every euro of
public money invested in culture has major positive repercussions on the
local economy. Presenting this choice as good economic management is absurd.
The real reason is to be sought elsewhere: in a press release published
on November 12, Morançais clarified the matter, announcing that she
wanted to attack the "monopoly of highly politicized associations."
Understand: dirty dens of leftists! A statement made in all relaxation,
which she ends by declaring "to ask this question is to expose oneself
to the usual trial of "fascism"[...]But I take responsibility!"
"To ask this question is to expose oneself to the usual trial of
"fascism" But I take responsibility!"
As a reminder, in 2022, the Pays de la Loire region generously granted
200,000 euros for "conquer or die", this film about the royalist general
De Charette, with Nicolas De Villiers as co-author and a certain Bolloré
as promoter. What people who are not very politicized!
This "subsidized culture" that the regional president denounces is
precisely a political choice, that of an accessible culture, which is
not reserved for a small economic elite. Things are still very
imperfect, but the SMAC network allows, for example, everywhere in
France to find varied programs at prices two to three times lower than
those of large private theaters. These theaters also allow the emergence
of artists who are not interested in programmers focused on profit.
Monday, November 25, 3 000 demonstrators gathered in Nantes in front of
the Pays de la Loire regional hotel to protest against the decision. In
culture, the question of modes of action often arises: if strikes and
occupations can happen, their main purpose is to make noise with the
public. Many cultural workers, intermittent and precarious, cannot
envisage a prolonged strike, both because of the instability of their
situation, but also because of the absence of fixed workplaces.
Similarly, one-off events cannot risk it, under penalty of putting their
entire sustainability at risk, their financial balance only being played
out over a few days. In the face of political attacks against culture,
it is essential to get the public to face up to the workers concerned,
to build a balance of power, and defend what should remain a common good!
N. Bartosek (UCL Alsace)
Validate
[1]For the complete list of planned cuts: "The list of budget cuts for
the Pays de la Loire region", Mediacités, November 28, 2024.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Politique-regionale-Dans-les-Pays-de-la-Loire-la-droite-veut-tuer-la-culture
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