Cancellation of credits: Culture loses another €38 million

Contrary to what Donald Trump and some other leaders seem to think, war is never trivial. In addition to its human and material toll, it weighs on the countries involved as well as on the world economy. While the situation gets bogged down, the conflict in the Middle East generates a significant bill, which the government of Sébastien Lecornu intends to compensate with a new layer of austerity.

The Prime Minister had thus warned, a few weeks ago, in a letter to ministers dated April 21. It outlined the repercussions of the war on the economic situation of France: lower growth, an increase in interest rates, a rise in inflation and, finally, additional investment in military forces and instruments.

« The total cost of this crisis could therefore represent at least 6 billion euros », Sébastien Lecornu estimated in his letter, pointed out The Worldwhich served as a sort of warning to ministers. The stated objective was then, in fact, to save this sum, to the tune of €2 billion on social security [via le gel du barème des allègements de cotisations sociales sur les bas salaires, NdR] and €4 billion in state spending.

Une réserve de précaution limitée

After this first announcement from Sébastien Lecornu, details were awaited, so much so that the Senate Finance Committee ended up setting an ultimatum regarding obtaining the details of these budgetary decisions. In fact, the government has room for maneuver to intervene without going through an amending finance law, recalls Public Sénatwhich “ allows it to cancel up to 1.5% of the credits opened in the finance law, or around a dozen billion euros ».

In total, the maneuver planned by the government would aim to cancel €847 million in credits, while the Ministry of Action and Public Accounts plans to freeze €3.2 billion in state credits, to make them available again, possibly, later.

The website of the political and parliamentary channel unveils the two draft government decrees to make these economic measures effective. The first cancels €407 million in commitment authorizations (AE) and €464 million in payment credits (CP), in order to compensate for the opening, at equivalent amounts, of AE and CP in the budget of the Ministry of Ecology, Development and Sustainable Mobility — the idea being to finance aid to “ big rollers » and the energy check.

The government assures that these cancellations carry “ for the most part » on the precautionary reserve of each ministry. This reserve represents a portion of the credits opened in finance laws, made immediately unavailable from the start of the management period, to constitute “ an envelope of credits that can be more easily mobilized to deal with contingencies arising during management ».

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This reserve is, however, being reduced visibly, since the government is drawing on it for budgetary adjustment purposes. At the end of 2025, the end-of-management finance law thus included cancellations amounting to €123 million in commitment authorizations, and €48 million in payment credits for the Ministry of Culture.

Tens of millions less

In this equation, the Ministry of Culture would lose €19.2 million in commitment authorizations and €19.9 million in payment appropriations. The “Creation” and “Heritage” programs are particularly affected, with declines of €7 million on average in AE and CP. The “Transmission of knowledge and democratization of culture” program, for its part, suffered a cancellation to the tune of €5 million, in AE and CP. The “Support for the policies of the Ministry of Culture” program would lose around €800,000, in AE and CP as well.

On the side of the “Media, book and cultural industries” mission, austerity is also on display, with €1.8 million less in commitment authorizations and a reduction of €1.7 million for payment appropriations for the “Book and Cultural Industries” program. cultural industries…

The second decree cancels €440 million in commitment authorizations and €490 million in payment credits, or, respectively, €18.8 million in AE and €18.1 million in CP for the Ministry of Culture. This time, the “Transmission of knowledge and democratization of culture” program is the most affected (around €7 million less in AE and CP), ahead of “Heritages” and “Creation”.

The “Book and Cultural Industries” program is once again doing well with €1.1 million less credits in AE and €1.3 million in CP.

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In total, the cancellations therefore amount to €38 million (€38,086,790) in commitment authorizations and €38 million in payment credits (€38,086,791). For the “Book and cultural industries” program, the bill for the war in the Middle East amounts to €3 million in AE and CP (€3,057,845).

Photography: Poster presented during an action by artist authors against the RAAP reform, in 2016 (illustration, ActuaLitté, CC BY SA 2.0)

By Antoine Oury
Contact : ao@actualitte.com