Palais de la Découverte: the Minister of Higher Education wants it to remain at the Grand Palais

Does the recent ouster of its president, Bruno Maquart, herald a move for the Palais de la Découverte? The Minister for Higher Education, Philippe Baptiste, has declared himself "in favor" of keeping the science museum within the Grand Palais, the possible transfer of which to the Cité des Sciences has sparked a storm of protest.

"I'm in favor of it, even if the decisions haven't been completely made yet ," he explained Thursday in Le Parisien. "It's an incredible, emblematic place. In France, all scientists are extraordinarily attached to it." The minister, however, is defending a "new path ." The Palais de la Découverte and the Cité des Sciences , brought together in the public institution Universcience, "have a DNA and ambitions that are not the same. I think it's complicated to bring everything together in the same place." "Especially since the Cité des Sciences will have to be renovated ," the minister continued. "The building is old, it has structural problems. There are enormous real estate and economic issues behind it. However, we can't imagine finding ourselves at a given moment in a situation where one is unavailable and the other is being renovated."

Universcience employees launched a petition on Friday to "save" the Palais de la Découverte after the government terminated the tenure of its president, Bruno Maquart. And some fifty representatives of international scientific institutions called on France on Friday to guarantee the future of the museum, "a model of demanding and accessible mediation."

Concerns are all the greater in scientific and educational circles since Culture Minister Rachida Dati suggested in Le Figaro on June 12 that moving the Palais de la Découverte was an open option. "The question of scientific culture in France is not a question of location but a question of vision and project," she explained on the very day the institution's president was ousted.

Philippe Baptiste does not accept "the term dismissal, which has a certain connotation" and says he is "deeply convinced" that he "will be called to other functions ." But justifies the government's decision: "We are in the process of changing the path a little. It is therefore not illogical to say that this must be carried out by another personality."

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"Those who visited the Palais de la Découverte were able to dissect frogs or conduct electrostatic experiments with fabulous equipment. But we also need to open the museum more to society, with questions about technologies, which are everywhere, or the climate," explains the Minister of Higher Education. The building, famous for its planetarium, closed in 2020 for renovation. It is expected to reopen in 2026.