Rima Abdul-Malak, the new Minister of Culture, pledged on Friday to “defending cultural sovereignty”to invest in arts education and to raise “the titanic challenge” of the ecological transition in the environment.
>> New government: who is Rima Abdul Malak, the new Minister of Culture?
“I am determined to defend our cultural sovereignty to affirm the place of French creation, of the French language, of French innovation in the digital ocean, and soon in the metaverse”said the 43-year-old Franco-Lebanese during the handover with Roselyne Bachelot rue de Valois, at the end of the afternoon.
“I am determined to fight to invest more massively than ever in artistic education, in the encouragement of artistic practices to develop the desire for culture in our youth”added the former cultural adviser to President Emmanuel Macron. “I am delighted to be able to work with Pap Ndiaye”new Minister of National Education.
Among the other axes of the new tenant of the rue de Valois, figure the accompaniment of the cultural institutions in “their ecological transition”. “It is a major and titanic challenge”underlined the one who says to have left “the place of the shadow counselor” to become a minister.
She wishes “place culture in the policy of appeasement of memories” driven by Emmanuel Macron. “It is neither a policy of repentance nor a policy of denial, it is a policy of recognition”she assured.
The minister also intends to make heritage “more accessible”, “defend a public, pluralist and independent audiovisual sector”, “to amplify the development of our cinema” and “to carry out a great plan for the crafts (…) to preserve the know-how, to perpetuate it” and “create jobs of the future for our youth”.
Rima Abdul-Malak wants to defend the “cultural sovereignty”
Abdul-Malak paid tribute to his parents, “who have the courage to leave Beirut in the middle of the war (civil, 1975-1990) with their three children and five suitcases and who have chosen France and its motto of freedom, equality, fraternity”.
She also paid tribute to her French teacher in college, who gave her “the most beautiful virus”that of the theatre, and to “children in refugee camps, hospitals, orphanages” whom she met during her work with the NGO “Clowns sans frontières”.
Roselyne Bachelot recalled the results of her mandate, which began in the midst of a pandemic and during which her ministry provided 14.6 billion euros to help a weakened cultural environment.