A thousand people demonstrated Thursday, December 19 in the morning in front of the Hôtel de Région in Nantes where the examination of the 2025 budget began in order to protest against the drastic cuts announced by the president of the Loire" rel="tag">Pays de la Loire region in culture or even sport, according to an AFP journalist.
Tractors from the Peasant Confederation blocked the Eric Tabarly bridge which leads to the Hôtel de Région at the start of the day, while around a thousand demonstrators, including a large number of people from the world of culture, gathered in front of the hotel.
Some came with installations, such as hanging mannequins, to denounce the impact of these cuts on their jobs. “This budget is the image of an ideology that is growing and which scares me and which will put cultural diversity in danger“, Héléna Bourdaud, a 45-year-old singer, told AFP. “By cutting the budgets of local missions or family planning, we are preparing a very worrying world for our children.“, she added.
From mid-November, cultural actors in Pays de la Loire were worried about clear cuts in their budget and more than 3,000 demonstrators had already protested at the end of the month. The 2025 budget provides for drastic cuts in subsidies in culture, sport, community life and the economy, with a savings target of 100 million euros. It also provides for the non-renewal of 100 positions within the Region’s management.
“This vote is undoubtedly the most important since we led the community, it sets a clear course and demonstrates our sense of responsibility in a troubled period.“, claimed for her part the president of the Pays de la Loire region, Christelle Morançais (Horizons), at the opening of the debates.
“This budget is anything but an austerity budget: it is ambitious, voluntary, committed“, she pleaded. “All subsidized sectors are concerned without exception”, she clarified. She believes that it is necessary “Getting away from the logic of the counter, the magic money, whatever it costs which has reduced France to nothing“.
Marlène Guillemette, production manager for the giant puppet company Paris-Benares based in Loire-Atlantique, expresses the concern of her profession in the face of these budgetary guidelines: “We fear losing our job. Many festival programmers have no visibility for 2025“. The examination and vote of the budget are scheduled for Thursday December 19 and Friday December 20.
