“Obviously we will continue to finance public broadcasting”assures Gabriel Attal, government spokesperson on France Inter on Tuesday March 8, after Emmanuel Macron declared, during his first campaign rally on Monday evening in Poissy (Yvelines), to want to abolish the audiovisual license fee if he is re-elected .
>> Presidential 2022: Emmanuel Macron undertakes to abolish the audiovisual license fee if he is re-elected
“We need strong public broadcasting in a context of misinformation, where the digital giants are circulating information that is not always sourced”explained Gabriel Attal, but also “because it participates in French creation”. “What we propose to remove is not the financing of public broadcasting, it is the tool” who according to him “erodes”since the fee consists of “make 28 million French people pay 138 euros, whatever their income”if their household has a television.
“There are fewer and fewer French people who own televisions and who consume content on smartphones or computers.”
Gabriel Attalat France Inter
The abolition of the audiovisual license fee must also go hand in hand with that of the housing tax, underlined Emmanuel Macron himself on Monday evening, since the two taxes are currently paid jointly.
“It is not because we are abolishing a tax that we are attacking public broadcasting”, assures the government spokesman, who mentions a possibility of “plan a system where you have visibility over several years, with for example a budget voted for five years, as it exists for certain sectors of the State”. “We will continue to guarantee its means, independence, long-term visibility”he adds, without giving further details on the levers that can be used.
Candidates Valérie Pécresse (LR), Marine Le Pen (RN) and Éric Zemmour (Reconquête!) have also announced their intention to abolish the license fee, some of them proposing to privatize part or all of the public media.
Since 2009, the contribution to public broadcasting has been payable by anyone subject to housing tax and owning a television. Its amount is used to finance public sector TV and radio channels, such as France Télévisions, Radio France, Arte or France Médias Monde (France 24, RFI, etc.).