Rachida Dati: CGT calls for refusal to play at the Avignon Festival if the Minister of Culture attends

The CGT spectacle, the leading union in the cultural sector, called on artists, technicians, and administrative and reception staff in a press release on Thursday, July 3, to "refuse to perform" at the Avignon Festival if the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, "appears" in the city of the popes, as does " another member of the Bayrou government . " "A preventive strike notice has already been filed for the Festival period," from July 7 to 26, the union said.

At the end of June, the union had called for her "resignation" due to a multitude of grievances, including mainly "budget cuts" with "catastrophic effects" on the performing arts. Faced with the call for her resignation, the minister's entourage, questioned by Agence France-Presse, had denounced at the end of June "a political tract" and inaccuracies. The minister maintained on France Inter at the beginning of May that there had been "no budget cuts at the Ministry of Culture" .

Problems have been mounting since then. At the end of June, the investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal rejected her appeal against the National Financial Prosecutor's Office, which demanded that she be tried for corruption alongside former Renault boss Carlos Ghosn. The decision to refer her to a criminal court will rest with investigating judges.

Furthermore, ^Ms. Dati is defending a reform to create a single holding company for public broadcasting, which has aroused strong opposition from employees. It was rejected Tuesday by the National Assembly, with the left and the National Rally voting against. This reform "has not been rejected, it continues," she told AFP on Thursday during a trip to Suresnes, a town in the Hauts-de-Seine region, shortly after the bill was approved by the Senate committee.