LA TRIBUNE – Why did you choose to post this petition entitled “Don’t turn off the lights on the live show !” ?
Nicolas DUBOURG, President of Syndeac (National union of artistic and cultural companies) – There is an anxiety that begins to grow. We are in March, companies in the cultural public sector are worried regarding the fact that the closing of the 2023 budgets will undoubtedly be done with large deficits. In this context, we are more than worried for 2024. Theater management is starting to consider reductions in activity, production cuts, even lighter seasons. A process that is likely to escalate if nothing is done. We have already alerted the public authorities on numerous occasions, we are not heard, we are raising our voices.
In the petition, you make “the bitter observation of the flagrant disengagement of the State and certain local authorities”…
For nearly twenty years, the budgets have never been revalued, including that of the Ministry of Culture. And yet inflation exists. When it’s 1% inflation, companies in the cultural sector adapt. At the end of the 2000s, a period when the latter were in a good financial situation, they were able to assume year following year a stagnation of budgets. But following twenty years of stagnation, between the shock of the Covid-19 crisis and inflation, they are now on the verge of rupture.
How do you explain that nothing is moving?
We have noted a political disinterest for twenty years which is reflected in the fact of saying to ourselves: ” we maintain the budget “. But maintaining the budget, in economic terms, means lowering it, inflation never being at 0%. It’s just another way of saying “On disengages ! This can be a budgetary logic that requires making an effort for one or two years. But the disengagement has been going on for twenty years: it’s called a policy of deconstruction. Maintaining the budget would consist in increasing it by 1 to 2% per year. And today, to increase it by 10%. We are really dealing with double talk.
How much do you estimate the actual decline in financial support, from the state and from communities?
As far as the companies represented by Syndeac are concerned, 30 million euros are missing for the year 2023. But this is only a very small part of what culture is: operas and orchestras should be added , who are members of the Musical Forces, there are also big problems in the current national music scenes… We are going to fight for there to be a structural reform. There has to be a financial conference to ask the government the right questions: do you think that this sector should continue to exist within the framework of the French cultural exception or at some point , you assume – as was the case for the hospital, for the school and for the university – to deconstruct public services?
Do you have the impression that decision-makers forget that culture is an economic sector in its own right, which accounts for more than 2% of GDP?
A theater that hosts a show also remunerates permanent employees who have worked on its production, whether from a legal, budgetary, technical, communication or link with the public point of view. Like all employees, they will ask for a salary increase, especially in a context of inflation. In areas such as energy, employees asked last year for salary increases of around 10%. If economic activity makes it possible to follow this increase, there is no problem. The companies represented by the Syndeac participate in the public service, the bulk of our funding consists of levies, that is to say taxes. Unfortunately, those who distribute the tax money do not follow inflation, yet there is indeed 10% more VAT coming in, the deficit is not widening! The question is therefore how the tax money is distributed. What we observe is that we are completely sidelined in this distribution.
You are also the director of a university theater contracted in Montpellier: what are your daily problems?
When a company comes to present a show, there is a part dedicated to the salaries of the artists and another part which is called the approach costs for the hotel, the train, the transport of the decor, etc. On the salary side, we note increases of regarding 10%: a show that cost 10,000 euros, we will pay 11,000 euros. On the approach costs side, it is between 30 and 40% increase, or even beyond in certain cities like Paris. When you have a budget of 100,000 euros, while the cost of a show has increased by 20 to 30%, you will have to host fewer: if you had planned ten shows, you will only host seven! Which means that three companies that had planned to sell their show will not. It’s a drop in activity that will ultimately threaten the ecosystem as a whole because people will then say to you: “Your theater is open six months a year, why do I, in as a community, I will continue to finance it while it is closed all the time? “. It’s a vicious circle… The richness of this ecosystem which makes it possible for artists to intervene in schools, in prisons, in hospitals, because on the side, they have an activity ensured by the theatres. This allows them to be registered with the intermittent scheme and to carry out activities within the company at the same time. If all this disappears, not only will there be no more artists in theaters, but they will disappear everywhere else! It is these chains of consequences that we are trying to alert public authorities to.
What are you proposing today as a union?
The purpose of this forum is to question the government: the Minister of Culture and the Minister of the Economy, as well as the Presidency of the Republic. We want to warn them: “you need to react quickly and strongly! “. This reaction must concern the State budget, but also the capacity of local authorities to intervene in the cultural sector. There are a certain number of local authorities which tell us today that the budget available to them is increasingly constrained by the fact that the State is draining public finances. As a union, we tell them that’s true, but only partially. The Regions’ budget has evolved, it is not stagnating. The problem with culture is often that the budget is maintained at the level of year N-1 instead of making it follow the general level of the budget. What we are pointing to is the question of indexing. The general budget must be indexed, just as it is necessary for a certain number of structures to benefit from this indexation over multi-annual periods.
What cultural structures would be affected by this indexing?
We have, in our union, structures approved by the State and by local authorities. From the moment there is a monitoring committee that brings together the Region, the Metropolis, the State and the Department, the least we can do is that these partners do not tell us each year: “I will see what I give next year”… They need to be able to make financial commitments that include the issue of inflation, not just the project. We are too often told: “I only finance if I like the project”. While the project does not work without the economic means that allow it to be implemented.
This petition has already collected more than 7,700 signatures. What’s the next step?
A CNPS (National Council of Performing Arts Professionals, Ed.) must be held in the presence of the Minister of Culture in the coming weeks. This is why we launched this initiative: we want to reach the CNPS saying “we have X thousands of people who have signed the Syndeac petition: what does the Minister intend to do? “. We ask to be better listened to, and above all we want them to understand that we are not going to stop there. This petition is only the first stage of the rocket.
For their part, are the spectators back in the rooms?
Last year, we still had attendance down by 15 to 20%, but this year, it’s going very well, there is really a recovery effect. I am pleasantly surprised to see how busy the theaters are once more.
This is therefore not an argument for not supporting the budgets allocated to culture…
No, and that will never be an argument. It’s like the question of the number of children per school, which can vary from one school year to another. When the numbers drop, we close a class, when it’s the other way around, it will take five years to find new ways. This is truly emblematic of a political situation in which society struggles to finance common public services. I finance the hospital through my taxes, and yet I am very happy never to go there, but I know that I am in an egalitarian and peaceful society on the question of health. In the same way, having a society in which artists have a place allows everyone to benefit. This is not a question of use, but of general interest.
