What can we remember from these last few months?

Rachida Dati, season 3. Thanks to the support of Emmanuel Macron and part of the right, the Minister of Culture is once again returning to Rue de Valois. Review of season 2 of a minister who dreams of becoming mayor of Paris.

IThere will definitely be a government at Christmas. Without much surprise, Rachida Dati returns for a season 3 Rue de Valois, embedded in the Bayrou government. Appointed to Culture in January 2024, to everyone's surprise, by Emmanuel Macron, this figure of the Sarkozy right, mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris, has visibly ended up coming to terms with a territory that is far from its initial aspirations – she wanted a regal ministry. A portfolio which, however, allowed her to continue to gain the spotlight and which she transformed into an ideal launching pad to achieve her main objective: winning the mayoralty of Paris in 2026. All this with a certain saturation of the media space and an immoderate taste for announcements of all kinds.

Season 1 of Minister Dati (January-July 2024), under the aegis of showrunner Gabriel Attal, will have been that of the discovery and handling of the files. Renewed at the end of September for a season 2 led by Michel Barnier, it has multiplied again, occupying all the media space (TV, radio, social networks) while accelerating the pace of announcements. Prime Minister Barnier's mandate lasted only three months. But Dati, aware of the ephemeral lifespan of governments since the dissolution, was able to push her advantage to push through hot issues, helped by a stable and experienced cabinet.

Heritage pampered in the 2025 budget

Thus, the immediately operational team was able to carry out budget negotiations in the fall despite a very tight schedule. Rachida Dati can therefore credit herself with having obtained a budget for 2025 almost identical to that of 2024, with 4.45 billion for culture and 4.03 billion for audiovisual – a lesser evil given the budgetary rigor imposed by Michel Barnier. At the beginning of November, the minister, who had promised a gesture for heritage, even pulled out of her hat an additional 300 million to respond to “the heritage emergency”. Son amendment was well received as the sector is consensual among right-wing elected officials, notably in the National Rally which had made it the almost sole axis of its cultural program.

Crisis in live performance

Will the credits allocated to live entertainment (at the same level as in 2024, not counting inflation) be enough to face the serious crisis the sector is going through? Nothing is less certain, especially since local authorities (regions, departments, municipalities, etc.), called upon to make an effort to restore public accounts to the tune of at least 5 billion euros, risk not being able to follow. Already, many departments have reduced their funding this year. And in the Pays de la Loire Region, the 2025 budget presented by Christelle Morançais (Horizons) which provides for drastic cuts threatening the entire cultural sector, has just been voted on. These considerable savings endanger the entire local cultural ecosystem.

In a column published on the website of Telerama, all certified live performance associations and festivals have recently sounded the alarm, a historic first which clearly demonstrates the concern affecting the sector. “It is the very existence of artists and artistic teams that is at stake, as much as a significant part of the economic dynamism of the territories,” they write.

Financing at the last minute of public broadcasting

In the turmoil since the abolition of the license fee, public broadcasting has seen the disaster scenario of budgeting recede – it would amount to subjecting this democratic pillar to the goodwill of the government, in contempt of its independence. In October, the Assembly voted in an accelerated procedure on the bill securing its financing, by allowing the extension of the current financing system, through a fixed portion of VAT, and the virtual renewal of its credits. Under the cover of stagnation, the ministry is actually cutting its budget by approximately An additional 100 million euros normally planned for 2025 in its multi-year contract of objectives and means (COM). Nevertheless, the financial future of Radio France, France Télévisions, France Médias Monde, TV5 and INA is therefore assured beyond December 31, 2024.

Before the dissolution, Rachida Dati associated this financing with a governance reform, then with a merger. Two potentially flammable subjects that the minister has taken care to avoid in recent times, postponing them indefinitely, as it is difficult to see which majority could now support them – the left is against and the National Rally is campaigning for the privatization of France Télévisions and Radio France.

Change on the Culture pass

The Minister of Culture was initially in the camp of detractors of the Culture pass – a promise from candidate Macron in 2017 –, judging the system ineffective and exorbitant. Before you change your mind. In a slightly opportunistic turnaround, announced the day after the presentation of the 2025 budget (the Culture pass is endowed with 210 million euros), Rachida Dati now wants to relaunch the only cultural policy measure of the Head of State, in reforming him so that he is no longer a “social reproduction tool”. She hears like this “adjust the amount of credit allocated to young people according to their resources”. No doubt the idea came to him when he read the first (mixed) assessment of this system produced by the Court of Auditors.

In the days preceding the fall of the Barnier government, the minister also hastily concluded some files, multiplying press releases to welcome the agreements signed in Saudi Arabia or the inclusion of fairground culture and know-how. make Parisian roofers and zinc workers on the UNESCO Intangible Heritage list. Among these announcements, that of a plan to combat attacks on creative freedom was particularly welcome, as the silence of the ministry on this worrying subject was becoming embarrassing. However, it remains to measure the concrete effects on the work of artists and professionals, who face a growing number of pressures, threats, and even actual cases of censorship.

Paris in sight

Since her arrival at Rue de Valois in January 2024, Rachida Dati has occupied the media space with talent, present on all fronts, in a proactive and performative style which has the advantage of giving the illusion of action, in the purest Sarkozy tradition. Yet guarantor of press freedom, she did not hesitate to take legal action against the media which are investigating her connections with economic circles: three procedures were launched against The New Obs and two against The Chained Duck. She never hesitates to step up to the plate on a TV set or on X to defend Emmanuel Macron or the government.

The minister also makes no secret of her true ambition: to wrest the town hall of Paris from her eternal rival Anne Hidalgo, who has made it known that she would not be a candidate for a third term in 2026. Dati, who has taken over on the Parisian right, therefore intends to launch into the battle from 2025. It will therefore probably pack its bags from Rue de Valois in the fall, if the government holds out until then. Indeed, will season 3 from showrunner Bayrou have time to be written as opposition threatens to censor it this winter? Continued in the next episode.