The best defense is attack. While employers and the regional inter-union of culture meet in a general assembly, this Wednesday, November 13, at 6 p.m., at the Lieu unique in Nantes, to respond to the budget cuts that the regional council is preparing, the president of the Loire" rel="tag">Pays de la Loire publishes a scathing message on the X network.
“So culture would be an untouchable monopoly? The monopoly of very politicized associations, which live on public money. I am the target of activists who accuse me of wanting to stop regional subsidies to their structures. On my own, I would like to “destroy culture” (subsidized culture, I specify)… Just that! “, quips Christelle Morançais.
The president (Horizon) of the Region has decided to lead “an unprecedented turn of the screw” in the community budget: 100 million savings, including 40 million imposed by the State and 60 of its own initiative. The regional budget (2 billion euros) is not in crisis, but the elected official is thus setting a political marker against tax increases for businesses, in a country that she considers “shot at public expense”. The actual savings will be presented and submitted to a vote on the initial 2025 budget, on December 19, at the Hôtel de Région in Nantes.
“A system in permanent crisis”
Christelle Morançais questions, on X: “What is the sustainability of a system which, to exist, is so dependent on public money (including from communities whose legal powers in matters of culture are very limited); and even more so when this public money no longer exists? A system which we note, in addition, is, despite the subsidies it benefits from, in permanent crisis! Is this not proof that our cultural model urgently needs to reinvent itself? Be careful: to ask the question is to expose yourself to the usual trial of “fascism” or, it is currently fashionable, “Trumpism”… But I assume, and I ask this question clearly! »
This position has had some success on the social network, but also some outcry. The Region is refocusing on “its legal powers” (economy-employment, high school, environment) and transport; optional skills, such as culture and sport, will suffer. Leaks – not denied until now – speak of 73% cuts in a regional cultural budget which has already fallen from 42.2 million euros, in 2023, to 36 million euros, in 2024.
“Contempt and ignorance”
Ms. Morançais adds contempt to ignorance: culture, an “essential” which makes the region shine,”
writes Mayenne PS deputy Guillaume Garot, one of his main opponents in the regional council, on X. In a column published yesterday, Tuesday November 12, on Ouest-France.frthe socialist senator from Loire-Atlantique Karine Daniel is worried about the “150,000 jobs” linked to culture in Pays de la Loire.
It’s going to be a Michelin bis. But in culture, it makes less noise than in the auto sector when there is damage, because we are small structures
an employer of artists told us, in a report published on November 7. Small companies and modest festivals do not survive on subsidies alone, but sometimes it is enough for one to be eliminated for the balance to collapse.
Aymeric Seassau, deputy mayor (communist) for Culture of Nantes, also talks about the large structures supported by the Region: “ Just one question: the Pays de la Loire National Orchestra (ONPL) and the Abbey of Fontevraud (Maine-et-Loire)
Are they part of these vile monopolies full of public money?
I like listening to the Orchestra, going to Fontevraud, the Lieu Unique, the opera, etc. And I am proud that the public authorities are allowing as many people as possible to access it.
