Reinventing culture to save culture. The plan announced Wednesday by the President of the Republic live from the Elysée Palace did not convince everyone. While several players in this sector weakened by the covid-19 crisis castigate insufficient measures, former culture ministers denounce "a staging" and "a show of improvisation" on the part of Emmanuel Macron.
Read also: "I was going backwards": behind the scenes of the meeting between Macron and the artists
For Aurélie Filippetti, the head of state shows a "naive vision of culture that does not respond to the urgency of the situation" . As François Hollande's former minister at Inrocks states , “his intervention gave the impression of a live improvisation show, unprepared, of a sometimes disconcerting spontaneity among those whose artists and professionals were waiting for 'they "save" them " . Besides the implementation of the white year demanded by the intermittents of the show, " nothing specific, nothing concrete ", she believes. " We had the impression that he was waiting for ideas rather than having answers . "
Riester, false culprit?
By attacking Franck Riester, the world of culture "has the wrong target," says Aurélie Filippetti, who deplores a muzzle of the Minister of Culture. "We are well aware that what prevents Culture Ministers from acting is the unwillingness of the President and the Prime Minister ," she added. I suffered like others before me and everyone else after me. ”
Franck Riester, scapegoat? This is also the opinion of Frédéric Mitterrand. According to the former minister of Nicolas Sarkozy, the current occupant of the rue de Valois would even be "the best Minister of Culture for a long time", he affirmed on the microphone of RTL Thursday morning. Mitterrand castigates a “staging” on the part of Emmanuel Macron. "The president's attitude is not in line with what I expect from culture ," he said. It all sounds a bit wrong. It was political politics. ”
Read also: Demining operation for Franck Riester before Emmanuel Macron's announcements on culture
A few days before the president's announcements, Jack Lang pleaded in Le Parisien for a "new deal", a massive investment plan in culture. Remarks taken up in the columns of the newspaper Le Monde , where he affirmed that "the ministers of Culture act as punching bags" and "are victims of a real shooting with pigeons" . "They are the scapegoats for indifference and the desertion of successive governments for twenty years ," declared the man who held this post twice under the aegis of François Mitterrand. Twenty years that the culture budget has dropped while fixed costs have increased and its scope has widened. We can change ministers ten times, the waltz will continue. ”