Fleur Pellerin, Minister of the Culture Industry

Fleur Pellerin : "Je me battrai pour préserver... by franceinter

As noted last week, the ministerial shake-up in the French government included a new culture minister, Fleur Pellerin. After a tense process of taking over from her predecessor and rival, Pellerin has come under attack by some cultural figures as not being the right person for the job. Filmmaker Christophe Honoré, in Venice where his new film, Métamorphoses, is in competition at the Mostra, is among those who have taken issue, quoted by Camille Beglin (Christophe Honoré: «Fleur Pellerin, une ministre de l'industrie culturelle», September 3) for Le Figaro (my translation):

The director deplores Pellerin's nomination to the Ministry of Culture: "The idea of placing Fleur Pellerin there: I have the impression that they think of this Ministry not as a Ministry for artists, but as a Ministry for the culture industry, and that's rather depressing." In effect, in her morning speech, the new minister seemed focused on digital issues, in particular Netflix and Google. Honoré added, "I would have been delighted to see a metamorphosis of the government, rather than a complete restructuring of it." The filmmaker is not the only one to express himself about this first public speech. Fleur Pellerin was accused on Twitter of speaking "in pat phrases" and of "not being up to the job." Her interest in digital issues especially provokes discontent from some. One even wonders if the new minister may have the intention of creating a Silicon Valley à la française.

According to an article by Bertrand Guyard, the rivalry between Pellerin and her predecessor, Aurélie Filippetti, goes back to the presidential campaign of François Hollande. The two women fought over the issue of how to handle the implementation of the Hadopi Law, which punishes those who violate copyright law online with fines, which Filippetti claimed was her jurisdiction. Netflix officially expands into French households on September 15.