Dissonance at the head of state. Or at least an attempt at very political demarcation. Faced with sports stakeholders who are protesting against the prospect of cuts in public funds allocated to sports practice, the government considers ” legitimate “ this drop in resources which occurs in the wake of the success of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP) in Paris… when the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, considers on the contrary, that it is necessary “ put the means”.
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers Financing of sport: the sporting world asks the State to “keep its word”
Read later
“We had an exceptional streak in 2024 (…) it is legitimate that we return to a more reasonable low water level”declared Wednesday, January 22, the government spokesperson, Sophie Primas, after the council of ministers. “We must keep our commitments and provide the means for our athletes and so that the legacy of the Games benefits everyone”considers for his part the Head of State with The Team. And to launch in the direction of the 425 athletes who co-signed a column, published the day before in the daily, protesting against this reduction in the budget: “You are right”
On January 16, during the examination of the finance bill for 2025 by the Senate, the executive attempted to add 34.3 million euros in additional savings to the sports budget, the planned reduction of which was already 273 million euros (including 85 million due to the end of exceptional measures linked to JOPs). The initiative was defeated by the senators.
This led some 2,030 players in the sporting world to publish on Wednesday in The Parisianan appeal – in addition to that launched by the 425 athletes – to ask for continued funding of sport. The president of the French Olympic Committee, David Lappartient, sent a letter to the Prime Minister, François Bayrou, denouncing a situation “incomprehensible”.
-A drop anticipated by the Attal government
Seeking to distance himself from the government, Emmanuel Macron also argued, in his address to athletes, that “since 2017” he had “ensured that the sports budget increased every year”.
During his first mandate, however, funds for sport were initially reduced. Which pushed, in October 2018, more than 300 athletes – including Olympic judo champions Teddy Riner and biathlon champions Martin Fourcade – to distribute an open letter, in which they called on the Head of State not to touch the budget of the sector.
Furthermore, as part of the finance bill for 2025 that the resigned government of Gabriel Attal had established in mid-2024, the sport, youth and community life mission was to see its credits reduced by 1.8 billion euros in 2024 to 1.5 billion euros in 2025, a drop of 16.6%.
The 2023-2027 public finance programming bill also outlined a trend towards reducing funding for sport (excluding the Olympic and Paralympic Games): it provided for “a drop of 20%” between 2023 and 2025, noted Senator Claude Kern (centrist UDI-Union).
