The lack of police, massively requisitioned for the organization of competitions, could weigh on the cultural events of summer.
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No gendarmes, no festivals in the summer of 2024. Rima Abdul-Malak, the Minister of Culture, tried to calm the spirits after the declaration of the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who had dismayed the festival managers. The latter had affirmed, during a hearing in the Senate on October 25, that because of the massive mobilization of the police during the period of the Olympic Games (OJ) in 2024, cultural events should be “canceled” or “postponed”. Representatives of the biggest festivals (more than 100,000 spectators) were received on Wednesday November 2 by the Minister of Culture to try to find solutions.
But she may remember that the festivals constituted “the DNA” of France and recognize that “the presentation by her colleague could lead to confusion on the interest of the government” for culture, “the minister, despite His good will, has brought neither solution nor answer, “deplores Stéphane Krasnietski, vice-president of the current music union (SMA) and director of the Les Suds festival in Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône).
Where to find police forces? According to Gérald Darmanin, the Olympic Games will mobilize “on average around 30,000 police and gendarmes per day”. The Olympic Games will take place from July 26 to August 11, 2024, the passage of the flame in nearly 600 cities will start from June 23, and the Paralympic Games are scheduled from August 28 to September 8. Not to mention the 80th anniversary of the Liberation of Paris, the celebration of landings in Normandy and Provence and, from mid-June to mid-July, the organization of fan zones in France for the European football championship in Germany.
“It is neither precise nor reassuring”
For an inter-ministerial meeting, Rima Abdul-Malak asked to assess “on a case-by-case basis” and in connection with the prefects the impact of the lack of police, but also the rescue teams and private security on each festival. Even if it means considering a decrease in the format or changes in dates. It has not excluded either, in the worst case, certain cancellations. “It is neither precise nor reassuring. Why can cultural Olympiads exist if it is necessary to cancel festivals, the beating heart of culture that works every summer?” Asks Aurélie Foucher, general delegate of the union Professional producers, festivals, sets, independent music broadcasters (Professor).
Tiago Rodrigues, director of the Avignon Festival, judge “unacceptable and unbearable that the Olympic Games can lead to the cancellation of cultural events”. It would be, in his eyes, “a joke of very bad taste, contrary to the spirit of the Olympic Games, which would amount to flouting the French cultural exception and taking action of anti-decentralization”. Vincent Moselin, director of the National Union of Artistic and Cultural Enterprises (Syndeac), also stresses that “all audiences do not intend to go to the Olympic Games, hence the interest in guaranteeing a diversified offer of activities cultural “.
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