Emmanuel Macron arrived Friday, September 18 in Condom (Gers) to visit a historic mansion on the occasion of European Heritage Days, greatly disrupted this year by the Covid epidemic.
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The president was welcomed in the Hôtel de Polignac, a neoclassical-style building dating from the end of the 18th century and one of the 18 endangered monuments that had benefited from the Loto du patrimoine in 2018, noted an AFP journalist. .
He was to discuss with the students and teachers of the primary school installed in the building, the construction workers and the volunteers mobilized around the renovation.
The Head of State intends "to
affirm the mobilization of the State to save and preserve heritage in all regions
", explains the Elysee.
He is accompanied by the Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot, Stéphane Bern, the initiator of the Heritage Loto, Guillaume Poitrinal, President of the Heritage Foundation and Stéphane Pallez, CEO of the Française des Jeux, as well as his marries Brigitte Macron.
Cancellations in several cities
The Heritage Days were canceled this weekend in several cities where the level of contamination is high, such as Lille, Marseille or Bordeaux.
The recovery plan of 100 billion euros provides two billion for culture, including 614 million for heritage and museums.
Of this sum, 334 million will go to large establishments such as the Louvre, Versailles or the Musée d'Orsay and 280 million to heritage in the regions and to the promotion of fine crafts and know-how of excellence.
About twenty trade unionists, mainly from the CGT and Solidaires, were confined to a roundabout located about 2 km from the center of Condom, in the presence of an important security device, according to an AFP journalist.
"
We are frankly not very numerous but the State deploys disproportionate means to keep us at a distance,
" denounced Eric Cantarutti, secretary of the Departmental Union of the CGT.
"
It is not Macron that interests us, it is the capitalist policy that he is leading, hand in hand with the big bosses and Europe,
" he added.