France, green pass holds back culture and government will have to step in with aid

In France, the introduction of the sanitaire pass, the counterpart of our green pass or green certificate, has caused a major contraction in attendance at cultural venues. The Fédération Nationale des Cinémas Français, an association that brings together cinema exhibitors, told Agence France Presse that attendance has fallen by more than 50 percent since the introduction of the pass, and according to Marc-Olivier Sebbag, chief executive of the Fédération, “there is no doubt: this reduction is a direct consequence of the establishment of the health pass,” which was introduced last July 21.

Minus sign also among museum visitors, albeit with less dramatic declines: the Louvre also reports to France Presse that the drop, in the first week of the mandatory pass, is 17 percent compared to the previous week, while the Musée d’Orsay reports that attendance remains stable. In general, however, as Le Parisien newspaper reports, museums have fared better than cinemas. Declines also in the area of monuments, tourist sites and amusement parks: the data for now come in piecemeal and are the result of regional or provincial surveys, such as that of the department of Indre-et-Loire, which conducted a survey of 14 sites, some of them among the best-known in France (such as the Château d’Amboise) recording, in the first week of pass application, an average drop of 13 percent compared to the same period in 2020, with lows of 2 percent and highs of 50 percent.

Complaining of the most difficult situation, however, are the cinemas themselves, with some exhibitors speaking of catastrophic figures. The Fédération Nationale des Editeurs du Films, which gathers distributors, calculates that in the first week some releases suffered declines of up to 90 percent: “an industrial catastrophe for film publishers and distributors who were counting on relaunching the film market in the middle of the summer, to the benefit of the entire supply chain,” the association writes in a note. “They took all the risks by investing in the works and their promotion in order to propose a rich and diversified offer, aimed at all audiences. After 300 days of theatrical closures, this measure is the coup de grace for a profession that had already been severely tested and has now been sacrificed. This setback is all the more unfortunate in that audiences had confidently returned to theaters after their reopening, and in that the cinema had shown its vitality.” The solution, according to FNEF, can only be government intervention to help struggling businesses.

So, culture is now demanding answers from the government, which will again be forced to intervene with aid for the sector in order to make up for lost revenue from the implementation of the sanitaire pass. Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, in an interview with broadcaster RTL, confirmed that the government will offer supports to businesses affected by the consequences of the introduction of the green pass. “We will help them,” he said. “I want to reassure all professionals, we are always there. We have maintained aid for June, July and August, the solidarity fund is still active. At the end of August I will also receive the sectors on which the health pass has been imposed. We will not abandon those who are going through the crisis. We will respond present.” Asked if the health pass is holding back the economy that is restarting, Le Maire said, “I don’t think so. The reality is that the French economy as a whole has restarted very fast and strong. However, there is a certain number of sectors or territories where there can be difficulties and that’s why we decided to maintain the aid.”

Pictured: the Louvvre

France, green pass holds back culture and government will have to step in with aid

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