Culture in the sights of RN mayors

What does a far-right municipality look like? And what consequences can this have on culture? After the municipal elections of March 2026, the answer to these questions became clear. Culture, feminism or even ecology are not present in the political programs of the right and the extreme right and this disinterest is felt. Many town halls became RN following the last elections, and the new measures announced announce a worrying decline in cultural, social and ecological issues.

 

La culture mise à mal

 

On Tuesday June 9, the Franco-British director and actor Alexis Michalik announced on Instagram the cancellation of his play Passport by the new municipality of Castres where it was initially planned for February 2027. “I learned this week that the Passeport performance planned at Castres in February 2027 had been cancelled », he wrote, specifying that the show had nevertheless been programmed and validated. For him, “The decision to cancel his visit came at the last minute, at the request of the newly elected RN of the municipality”.

 

 

The play traces the journey of Issa, a young Eritrean migrant left for dead in the jungle of Calais. She“tells stories of exile, identity, integrationâ€underlines the director, and highlights the difficulties encountered in obtaining a residence permit. The new RN mayor of the city, Florian Azéma, justifies his decision by specifying that no contractual agreement had been signed by the previous municipality : « There has been a change of majority. It is the role and prerogatives of elected officials to carry out cultural programming […]. We had total freedom to come back to this programming,” affirme l’élu à ICI Occitanie.

 

Further south of Gard, Vauvertthe new mayor RN Nicolas Meizonnet has canceled the long-planned photographic exhibition by Sylvain Brino. He particularly criticizes the artist for being an LFI activist even though the latter does not identify with any particular party. A few weeks later, this same mayor refused « to continue to subsidize up to 65,000 euros » a jazz association, part of the programming took place in the town.

 

À La Flèche  in Sarthe, Le Carroi, a stage approved by the state and the city, which organizes festivals « The Freedmen » et « The Apartments »lost a large part of its 2026 subsidy following a decision by the municipality. The equivalent of 71,000 euros less on a budget of 253,000 euros in subsidies, explained its director Richard Le Normand to AFP. Consequently, « The Apartments » a été annulé et le festival « Freed » almost was too « but the companies insisted on coming to play, even if they were less paid,” continues its organizer, describing the cultural actors «très inquiets, extrêmement fébriles« . Pour  Richard Le Normand, « If the city cuts again in 2027, it is catastrophic ».

 

Culture is then not a priority for the far right, which is even worried about it. Philippe Ballard, RN deputy for Oise, called for « put an end to the pseudo-artists who make culture an instrument of propaganda in the service of immigrationist ideology.”

 

Forgotten struggles

 

Beyond culture, the far right, already well known for its anti-immigration and racist positions, does not hesitate to abandon necessary social and ecological initiatives. On the side of Carpentras in Vaucluse, the new RN town hall had the municipal council vote on the elimination of the subsidy granted to Family Planning. For the feminist association, it is a “symbolic” decision but not surprising. The municipal council would have liked to combine “generosity and responsibility ”, according to the town hall website. After the announcement of this deletion, family planning launched a call for donations which collected more than 4,000 euros in less than 24 hours. Proof that this feminist association is of public utility and supported by citizens.

 

Hervé de Lépinau, the mayor of the city, declared in a press release published on social networks that Planning has become “ a politicized and partisan body, but also an outpost of a controversial ideology that is wokism.”. In 2020, the current mayor of Carpentras compared abortion to genocide or « crimes on the roof “, while he was departmental councilor of Vaucluse.

 

 

Ecology also took a hit. As soon as they were elected, several new right-wing and far-right mayors made the same decision: to restore public lighting at night. “I guess there’s a meter somewhere, so I’ll go and turn it back on.”had promised the new Macronist mayor of Bordeaux Thomas Cazenave, during a debate with his ecologist opponent Pierre Hurmic. This lighting has now been restored in Bordeaux despite the climatic repercussions of this measure. Around twenty municipalities followed the example of Thomas Cazenave, including Carcassonne, Clermont-Ferrand and Poitiers.

 

Preview of the 2027 elections? For the moment, the observation is obvious. Without counting the influence of the Bolloré group on cinema or the Alloncle report on audiovisual, the world of culture is rightly worried and it is not the only one.