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Louis Ailot - mayor of the French city of Perpignan and deputy leader of far right National Rally political party - has reopened the city’s museums, claiming that the French need “access to culture”.
Chris Tebbutt | Planet Attractions | 11 Feb 2021
Louis Ailot has defied France’s national lockdown order to reopen Perpignan’s museums Credit: AFP
With COVID infection rates remaining high, a national lockdown and place and with France’s vaccine rollout moving at a slow rate, the move by Ailot is highly controversial.
Despite the government ban, Ailot has reopened four of the city’’s museums, including the Hyacinthe-Rigaud art museum, the Casal Pairal Museum of Catalan Art, the Joseph Puig coin museum and the National History Museum.
The news comes at a time when museum directors have been lobbying the French government to relax its restrictions, arguing that culture is essential to the nation’s mental health as well as stressing the robust health and safety measures already in place.
“There is a virus and it will be with us for a long time,” said Ailot, speaking at the reopening of the Hyacinthe-Rigaud. “There are treatments, there are vaccinations, there are precautions we can take. Let's get used to it and start by trying things out.”
France’s culture minster, Roselyn Bachelot, has previously said that museums and national monuments would be the first thing to open once France’s infection rates drop.
At present, the average number of daily infections in France is at around 20,000 people a day. Experts worry that a plateau in infection numbers at higher levels leaves little room to maneuver if the country’s hospitals do face a new spike in cases.
It’s currently unclear what the consequences of Ailot’s decision to defy lockdown will be, but a summary hearing will be held on February 15.
Museums and galleries
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