The latest episode to date last weekend, when the boss of Canal+ Maxime Saada announced that he no longer wanted to work with the 600 cinema professionals, signatories of a forum against his reference shareholder, Vincent Bolloré.
Political leaders, including presidential candidates, immediately entered the debate. The rebellious candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon thus accused the Breton businessman of wanting to “control creation in cinema”.
The spokesperson for the environmental group in the National Assembly, Léa Balage El Mariky, saw this Tuesday as proof that “we are entering a war with Mr. Bolloré.”
“Evidence that culture is prise à partie.”
The right-wingers were more conciliatory with Canal+.
The RN deputy Sébastien Chenu denounced the “exceedings of language” of the “festival antifas” signs in the tribune, so that the Liberal candidate is President David Lisnard (ex-LR) estimated who would be most interested in “the taire”.
A similar confrontation took place in April in another branch of the Bolloré empire, the Grasset publishing house. Some 200 authors announced that they were leaving to protest against the dismissal of its CEO Olivier Nora.
« Revanche »
“We are in a political climate. We are leaving the commission of inquiry into public broadcasting, which still left traces,” notes a Macronist minister. “There is a political battle, and in this political battle, obviously culture is taken part,” she said.
However, cultural policies are not at the top of the French’s concerns. In surveys, it is rather purchasing power, security, the environment or health that come up.
But a party like the National Rally knows that culture, in the broad sense, mobilizes its voters, believes political scientist and opinion specialist Emmanuel Rivière.
Jordan Bardella, president of the RN, insisted again last week that the 2027 election would be a “choice of civilization”.
For Emmanuel Rivière, “the divisions are increasingly articulated around value systems and less and less around economic positions”.
If the “elites” of the cultural world are reputed to be on the left, “a large part of the right has appropriated the field of cultural controversies as its own field, with a feeling of revenge,” he adds.
“Récit national” de gauche
In the United States, the trenches of the “culture war” have been dug for a long time. Republicans and Democrats argue over what is exhibited in museums, shown in films or learned in books.
In France, the phenomenon is less developed, but the far right has long adopted the concept of “cultural hegemony” from the Italian Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, which would be the prerequisite for accessing power.
The cultural battle is also embodied in the success of the French Canon, banquets celebrating “French values”. The ultraconservative billionaire Pierre-Édouard Stérin invested in the company, accused by the left of promoting an identity project under the guise of ribbing.
But the left is also trying to occupy this space.
The former rebel François Ruffin, candidate for 2027, calls for example not to let the right monopolize the “national narrative”.
“We need a Puy of the mad leftist”
“We need a left-wing madman’s Puy,” he said in January, a reference to the Vendée amusement park created by sovereignist Philippe de Villiers.
The investment banker committed to the left, Matthieu Pigasse, claims to be waging a cultural battle.
He is the head of the Combat group, owner of Les Inrockuptibles, music festivals and Radio Nova, whose comedians, on a radical left line, regularly arouse controversy.
These economic players in the “cultural battle” should also play a major role in the presidential campaign.
Vincent Bolloré is accused of playing into the hands of the hard right, in particular via his media CNews or Europe 1.
Matthieu Pigasse maintains the mystery about his own Élysée ambitions. At the beginning of May, he told La Tribune Dimanche: “I exclude nothing and I am available to everyone, given the existential threat that a victory for the extreme right represents.”
The government seeks to defuse
The government tried to bring a little serenity to the world of cinema after several days of agitation, judging the response of the boss of Canal + to a forum of professionals in the sector targeting Vincent Bolloré as “disproportionate”.
Questioned during questions to the government, the Minister of Culture Catherine Pégard said she regretted the declaration of Maxime Saada, chairman of the board of directors of Canal+, on his wish to no longer work with the signatories of a forum denouncing “the influence of the extreme right” on cinema.
“Amidst the concerns and criticisms of professionals, legitimate concerns, I would like reason and dialogue to prevail over threats,” she added.
According to the Zapper Bolloré collective, more than a thousand additional professionals have signed the platform since Maxime Saada’s exit. It now has more than 2,000 signatories, including actor Swann Arlaud, actress Juliette Binoche and director Jean-Pascal Zadi.
“Our cultural industries must not be exploited for political purposes,” stressed the minister, also attacking the authors of the text. “We must not be the game of controversies which weaken our greatest successes by attacking week after week these different pillars accused of being at the service of political ideologies”.
