“Culture is not sacrificed”: Bachelot defends health restrictions despite criticism from artists

Despite the restrictive measures to fight against the coronavirus which target, among other things, this sector, the Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot assured Wednesday, December 29 that culture was not “sacrificed”, and that the government would continue to help professionals in the field. “Culture is not sacrificed, culture continues. What threatens culture is the pandemic, not government measures.”, said the minister on RTL, where she was speaking for the first time since the announcement of new restrictions on Monday evening.

“A number of cancellations have already taken place because artistic teams have been affected by the variant”, she insisted. Following Jean Castex’s announcements on Monday evening, intended to stem a record outbreak of contaminations in France, standing concerts are again prohibited and a 2000-seat gauge is imposed for gatherings in closed spaces, a gauge that allows “the vast majority of theaters and performance halls” to stay open and so “continue in the same way, respecting the wearing of the mask and the vaccination pass”, she assured.

“We are in a process of anticipation to ensure that the Omicron epidemic does not overwhelm us and thus protect the world of culture”, continued the minister. “We are taking proactive measures to avoid what is happening in some countries, which is theaters being closed.”

Regarding the announcements of certain artists like Julien Doré, Hoshi, Grand Corps Malade or Eddy de Pretto to get into politics by claiming to be presidential candidates to hold their concerts under the guise of “political meetings”, authorized without gauge, “it’s a movement of humor (…) I’m sure they will behave as responsible people”, she judged.“We come up against the same thing as for places of worship, it is a constitutional measure, even if it is certain that in terms of health, it would be better that these measures also affect the political parties”, she admitted, however.

As for postponements, for example, for the Angoulême comic book festival or certain concerts, “we will support these structures, as we have done so far”, she assured. “More than 14 billion have been allocated to Culture to protect it”, insisted Roselyne Bachelot, referring in particular to the lowering of the criterion of access to short-time working, lowered from 80% to 65% loss of turnover, as well as “Cancellation insurance through the National Music Center”.

Devices called upon to be maintained: the minister explained that she was continuing to work with the Ministry of the Economy to “adapt our aid to this new phase”, who stays “temporary” and will run for three weeks, she recalled.

In addition, she indicated that the conclusions drawn from a test concert carried out on May 29 during a performance in Indochina are no longer relevant because of the characteristics of the Omicron variant. “The configuration is not at all the same. We were long before the appearance of Delta and the Omicron mutation. Organizing a new test concert is possible but it takes time”, she detailed.