Due to the progress of the epidemic, the government is rejecting the date put forward in December and is considering new measures to support the sector in full disillusion.
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It is now acquired: nothing will happen on January 7th. During his press conference on December 10, Jean Castex set at this date the possible reopening of places of culture (theaters, cinemas, museums, etc.), closed since October 30 to stem the second wave of the epidemic of Covid-19. But a little more than three weeks after the announcement of the Prime Minister, the number of infected people remains too high to let go, it is estimated at the top of the state. “Obviously, we will not be able to lift all the constraints” on January 7, conceded the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, on December 29, causing new disillusionment among culture professionals.
So when? Scared by the previous postponements, the executive does not intend to immediately set a new reopening date. “We must first see what are the effects of the end of the year holidays on the epidemic, if the number of cases soars again or not. Nothing should be announced before mid-January, at best” , explains a relative of Emmanuel Macron. Culture professionals have understood this well and mourned the rapid resumption of their activities. Already, the National Federation of French Cinemas (FNCF) has announced that cinemas will not raise the curtain before the end of January, or even the winter holidays, which begin on February 6 for a first part of the country. /
“Building a resilient model”
However, the executive does not intend to stand idly by. Even if the polls show the little interest of the French for the demands of the sector, the demonstrations and fiery platforms of the artists in December, after the announcement of the postponement of the reopening of places of culture, initially scheduled for December 15, were experienced as a wake-up call within the executive. “The artists are a fringe of the population whose sounding board is proportional to their number”, recalls an advisor. Understand: although they are relatively few in number (670,000 people, or 2.5% of the working population), cultural professionals know how to make noise to be heard.
Eager not to leave them in suspense, the Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot has planned to consult professional organizations again this week. Its objective: “to build a resilient model, with different operating levels, which allows cultural places to open up – even in a small way – and to better resist the ups and downs of the epidemic”, she explained in the JDD. In fact, the succession of openings and closings has been denounced by all the players, who consider this alternation to be psychologically exhausting and economically fatal. “The worst for us is the ‘stop and go’,” assures theater producer Jean-Marc Dumontet.
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