They advance slowly and masked but we will be swept away: in Nice, the concern of the world of culture in case of Éric Ciottis victory.

Wednesday, March 11, several artists’ and authors’ unions are organizing a gathering in Nice to warn about the danger they believe a possible victory of Éric Ciotti would represent for the world of culture. They fear that subsidies may be cut, or even that shows could be censored.

In Nice, few artists speak freely on the subject. Many depend on subsidies from the city, led by Christian Estrosi, and the Departmental Council, where Éric Ciotti chairs the finance committee. It’s difficult to take a stand in these conditions without risking becoming collateral damage in a fratricidal war between the two rival brothers, former members of the UMP and The Republicans: one, Christian Estrosi, now vice-president of Horizons having joined Emmanuel Macron before calling for his resignation; the other, Éric Ciotti, president of UDR who switched to RN since the 2024 legislative elections.

Facing the possible victory of the latter, the candidate of a “far-right union” according to official government classification ratified by the Council of State, it is time for Jonathan Gensburger. Time to take a clear stand, he denounces “the guilty inaction of those who dare not take a stand because they do not know who will win. Some artists and cultural leaders engage when the cause is distant or when there is no real risk.”

He didn’t wait for the ultimatum issued by the polls, all favorable to Éric Ciotti, to get involved. Former permanent actor at the National Theater of Nice before leaving, denouncing what he considered the toxic management of its director Muriel Mayette-Holtz, close to Christian Estrosi, he joined the support committee of Mireille Damiano, the candidate of the VIVA!-LFI list. As a representative of the CGT-spectacle, he calls for a large gathering against the far-right on Wednesday, March 11, in front of the Nice City Hall.

“It is indeed a huge, historical risk for the far-right to take over Nice, the fifth largest city in France. So, we were worried and we got up from our seats, we decided that something had to be done,” said Jonathan Gensburger, a member of the CGT-spectacle and supporter of Mireille Damiano, VIVA!-LFI candidate on France 3 Côte d’Azur.

What does he fear precisely in case of Éric Ciotti’s victory?

“They advance masked, but the policies implemented in the cities they run are extremely dangerous for cultural, associative, and trade union circles,” said Jonathan Gensburger, a member of the CGT-spectacle and supporter of Mireille Damiano, VIVA!-LFI candidate on France 3 Côte d’Azur.

In the call to protest, a non-exhaustive census lists the observed abuses in cities that have fallen into the hands of the National Rally: in Hénin-Beaumont, questioning the funding of the Human Rights League and Secours populaire, and “taking back control of the municipal theater which resulted in a profound change in its programming to serve a reactionary ideological battle”; in Fréjus, the closure of the last social center. Among others.

For Olivier Gueniffey, a cultural actor in Nice for 40 years, the place of culture in Nice is problematic, but the risk of history repeating itself is real in Nice.

“I am both a witness and an actor, having experienced a rather delicate situation under the leadership of Mayor Peyrat with his military music festival: I was responsible for a 700-seat theater. We have the experience and we fear that it will happen again,” said Olivier Gueniffey, a cultural actor in Nice on France 3 Côte d’Azur.

The former editorial secretary of the cultural free magazine La Strada also mentions the era of Jacques Médecin, and the cultural collapse that Toulon, the neighboring city in the Var region, experienced during the tenure of FN Mayor Jean-Marie Le Chevallier.

“We know that there is a resilience and resistance here, but it is still very fragile because the crux of the matter is money,” said Olivier Gueniffey, a cultural actor in Nice.

Benoit Arnulf knows this very sensitive equation of cultural subsidies by heart. His queer film festival “In&Out” has depended on them for 18 years. State, region, department council, city: it is not uncommon for festivals or theater companies to receive cross-financing. His films are widely shown in the rooms of the Jean-Paul Belmondo cinema in Nice, owned by the Department. But then why would Éric Ciotti, as mayor, would fund only what Éric Ciotti, president of the finance commission of the Department supports? Has he already encountered difficulties with this institution? He remembers an attempt to deprogram a film, under the pressure of a Department official. Benoit Arnulf resisted the pressure and won.

But he also notices the fear that has taken hold of the cultural milieu: “It’s quite difficult to have a citizen position in a situation where we have people in front of us who can easily wipe out our actions with a stroke of a pen,” said Benoit Arnulf, artistic director of the In&Out festival.

What worries him more is the discrepancy between what the far-right represents at the national level, and the inertia he observes at the local level, despite the political positions of some elected officials, especially those close to Philippe Vardon, a former RN member who went through Éric Zemmour’s movement before following Marion Maréchal-Le Pen.

“Our festival takes place every year in April. We follow the vote on subsidies from the annual budget: we are systematically attacked. These people do not know what we do, but by principle, LGBTQIA+ means woke, Islamo-leftist, and depravity,” said Benoit Arnulf, artistic director of the In&Out festival.

Benoit Arnulf does not expect funding cuts right after an eventual victory of Éric Ciotti. He believes in a strategy of demonization “at least until 2027.”

This analysis is shared by Jonathan Gensburger: “The far-right is dangerous, it is deceitful (…). It’s not on the morning of March 23 that theaters will close and subsidies will be cut. Things happen gradually (…) But yes, of course, it’s not a fantasy, some plays that can be staged, others that may no longer be staged, subsidies redirected to this association that we know is sympathetic and other subsidies cut, to LGBTQIA+ associations, or to associations that help migrants (…) History is repeating itself, unfortunately.”

And to conclude: “Let’s wake up, it’s not too late, on March 23, it will be too late. We will, and I say it with all humility and without boasting, be thousands to resist.”

At the time we finish writing this article, Éric Ciotti has not responded to our requests.