The city of Lyon wanted to strike hard against what it denounces as “a regular, massive attack”. On the morning of Wednesday May 18, the mayor of the city, Grégory Doucet (Europe Ecologie-Les Verts), vigorously denounced during a press conference the reduction in cultural subsidies for the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, chaired by Laurent Wauquiez (Les Républicains), which strikes many establishments in Lyon.
“Instrumentalizing culture is what authoritarian regimes do. We have at the head of the region an executive who behaves like an executive of the extreme right. It is a regular, massive attack, which jeopardizes the Lyon ecosystem, while it radiates throughout the region, lamented Mr. Doucet. This is where all fascist regimes start, this is why we are worried. »
Three theaters in Lyon learned this week that they were in turn affected by a reduction in regional cultural aid. About fifteen establishments in Lyon are concerned, including the Opera, the Biennale of contemporary art, the Institut Lumière and the Villa Gillet (which has seen its budget cut by 35%). “The list may not be exhaustive, we have no reading of the cultural policy of the region”estimated Nathalie Perrin-Gilbert, deputy mayor of Lyon in charge of culture.
“Reorient” spending
“Is the region bankrupt, due to spending on communication? »asks the assistant, who explained that the National School of Fine Arts in Lyon “don’t know[vait] always not “ whether it would receive the regional grant of 90,000 euros provided for in its 2022 budget. Tensions are high between the regional executive and several cities led by environmentalists or socialists. The regional council announced that it was maintaining the overall envelope of its cultural budget, but had decided to “redirect its expenditure in the balance of the territories”.
On Monday, Mr. Wauquiez had made regional subsidies a means of pressure on the mayor of Grenoble, Eric Piolle, whose city council authorized a modification of the internal regulations of swimming pools leading to authorizing the burkini there as well as topless swimming.
In the minutes following the vote of the municipality of Isère, the president of the region announced the suspension – without precedent – of all regional aid to the city. “By authorizing the wearing of the burkini in municipal swimming pools, Eric Piolle is definitively acknowledging his break with secularism and the values of our Republic. Faced with this separatism, and as I had promised, the region immediately ceases all subsidies to the town hall of Grenoble., tweeted Mr. Wauquiez.