David Desgouilles is a columnist at
Marianne
.
He has published
Dérapage
(ed. du Rocher, 2017) and
Their Lost Wars
, (ed. du Rocher, 2019).
FIGAROVOX. - The music festival Les Déferlantes has given up holding its 2023 edition in Perpignan, a city held by the National Rally (RN), after the refusal of Indochina and Louise Attaque to perform there. How does this decision inspire you?
I kind of feel like I was taken back to the year 1985 by the Delorean from Back to the Future.
Everything is there: the Indochine group, and the big bad FN.
I did not expect this makeover at the start of 2023. And for that, thank you Indochine!
Jokes aside, we have nevertheless changed era since initially, this festival had decided to organize its edition in Perpignan.
But its leaders obviously do not yet have the strong enough kidneys to maintain their decisions under the pressure of two musical groups.
Would they have been declared persona non grata in the world of culture if they had ignored Indochine and Louise Attaque?
In fact, nobody knows because nobody really tried.
Can we see in the boycott threats of the two groups
"
blackmail" and a "sectarian ideological whim
"
as mayor RN Louis Aliot asserts?
Of course, artists are free to perform wherever they wish.
They also have the right to ignore the 47% of voters who did not vote for Louis Aliot.
They even have the right to deeply despise those of their fans who chose this mayor in democratic elections.
But we also have the right to think that this attitude is anachronistic, as the RN no longer has anything to do with the FN of Jean-Marie Le Pen, and that it can even remain a fuel for the marinist vote.
And Louis Aliot also has the right to qualify this attitude as he sees fit.
For my part, to qualify this pressure exerted on the organizers of the festival, I hesitate between the confounding naivety of believing that this is how we will reduce the RN vote and the ridiculous posture of seeing oneself as Jean Moulin of the song because we are not going to sing in the city administered by Louis Aliot.
What a risk!
Does Louis Aliot experience the first hitch to his hitherto well-oiled strategy of capturing the world of culture? Behind this controversy, is this the sign of the failure of the demonization of the RN?
His strategy is obviously working very well locally, and that is the main thing if he wants to be re-elected.
And he had managed to attract this festival in the first place.
So he obviously moved on.
One day, a festival leader will end up telling recalcitrant groups that he can do without them.
He might be kicked out of a few dinners in town.
As long as he is not fond of these, he could even see an advantage in them.
