France announces 2022 culture budget exceeds 4 billion euros

Roselyne Bachelot delivers a speech before unveiling a painting by Spanish painter Pablo Picasso "Enfant a la sucette assis sous une chaise" at the Picasso Museum, Sept 2021 - Copyright COME SITTLER/AFP

By Jez Fielder with AFP

Published on 22/09/2021 - 19:30

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"This historic progression", according French Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot, "will bring to +15% the lasting increase in the allocation to culture since 2017, excluding public broadcasting and civil pension charges".

For the first time, the budget of the Ministry of Culture will exceed 4 billion euros, Culture minister Roselyne Bachelot announced at a press conference Wednesday.

For 2022, an envelope of 4.083 billion euros (excluding public broadcasting) will cover the culture component and the media, book and cultural industries sectors, compared with 3.805 billion euros in 2021.

This budget will thus increase by 273 million euros, i.e. + 7.5% compared to the initial finance for 2021.

"This historic progression", according to Bachelot, "will bring to +15% the lasting increase in the means which have been allocated to culture since 2017, excluding public broadcasting and civil pension charges".

In total, "to date, 13.6 billion euros have been mobilised in favor of culture since the start of the pandemic," said the ministry.

"We saved culture", insisted Bachelot, acknowledging however that "the reopening remains fragile".

The 2022 draft budget should make it possible to "get out of the crisis (born from the consequences of COVID-19)" and "to permanently re-arm cultural policies", she added.

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