Three winners of the Mediterranean 2020 awards and the publisher of one of them announced that they will boycott the awards ceremony on October 3 in Perpignan, after the election of RN Louis Aliot as mayor. Bruno Doucey, the publisher of the Algerian-Tunisian-French poet Souad Labbize, indicates in a press release to AFP that his publishing house will not go “ to the award ceremony any more ” than Souad Labbize.
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This prize being " placed under the aegis of the Mediterranean Center for Literature (CLM), sponsored by the town hall of Perpignan ", and to be awarded " by its organizer, the new deputy for culture of the city ", André Bonet, " he seems inappropriate to us to appear to give the slightest guarantee to a municipal team which embodies the reverse of all the values we defend ”, specify Editions Doucey.
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Co-winner with Carles Diaz of the Mediterranean Poetry Prize 2020 for his collection Je traversis les barbelés, Souad Labbize co-signed with the French-speaking Moroccan writer Mahi Binebine (Mediterranean Prize 2020 for Rue du pardon ) and the Italian novelist Giosuè Calaciura (Foreign Prize 2020 for Borgo Vecchio ) a text announcing that they will decline the invitation to the ceremony. It is a question of " avoiding any amalgamation and any recovery or instrumentalization of culture for ideological or political ends ", specify the authors.
Resignation of academician Dominique Fernandez
The president of the jury, the writer and academician Dominique Fernandez, also resigned from it " by choosing as a pretext the election of a so-called far-right mayor " told AFP Alain Bonet. Historical president of the CML, which he had created in Perpignan in 1982 with the support of Jack Lang, Louis Aliot's running mate minimizes the controversy. These positions stem, according to him, from a " little cabal completely irrelevant ", a " storm in a glass of water ".
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" These three laureates should have refused the prize, that is what would have been courageous, " he added, reaffirming his esteem for the quality of their works and the CML's commitment to the " spirit of sharing and fraternity ”in the Mediterranean. " The other seven laureates will be present " at the ceremony, which will also be attended by " a dozen former laureates to provide a form of support " to the prize, founded in 1984, he said. At the head of an unlabeled list, Louis Aliot delighted Perpignan from the outgoing LR mayor in June, making this city the biggest municipal catch in the RN.