"No minister of culture, for a long time, has as many aces up his sleeve as Rima Abdul-Malak"

“No minister of culture, for a long time, has as many aces up his sleeve as Rima Abdul-Malak”

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LSummer is rarely the season for sore questions for culture. We keep them under the rug until September. The spirit is festive and fun. The ministers participate in this euphoria, they run from party to party, shake hands with a smile on their faces and listen to the creators. In 2015, President François Hollande advised the novice Fleur Pellerin: “Tell them it’s good, it’s beautiful. They want to be loved. »

The new Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul-Malak, is also on tour in France. On June 25, she attended the Guns N’Roses concert at the Hellfest metal festival. The next day, she cheered her friend the singer -M- in Solidays in the crowd. A photo of her shows her with her arm raised and screaming like a fan. The image reflects the fresh side of her, which contrasts with her predecessors, often stiff as stakes.

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At 43 years old, Rima Abdul-Malak is a total unknown to the public and a more than familiar figure in the world of creation. Various articles contribute to bridging the gap, for example a lengthy interview on the website of the Spot, July 5th. At this level, it is a confession: his dual French-Lebanese nationality, Beirut at war which he left at the age of 10, his studies in Lyon, his curriculum, his left-wing values, his appetite for poetry… The portraits are benevolent, including the one of the chained duck1Ahem June.

Rima Abdul-Malak has assets. She is passionate about culture, which is normal. She dominates the machine and its gears and that is rarer. Above all, she has provided an important service to Emmanuel Macron, to whom she has been an adviser since 2019. When she joins him, the president finds himself in a cultural crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic is bleeding the sector dry, its actors denounce a lack of love and money, the Cultural Subscription is an expensive fiasco -a checkbook that young people spend to buy manga-, the Minister of Culture of So, Franck Riester, it’s tedious. Macron plague: “I miss a Lang. »

Rima Abdul-Malak offers him a battery of actions that allow him to regain control, the most disconcerting being a meeting broadcast on the Internet, in May 2020, where the president, in his shirt sleeve in the midst of the creators, promises them a billion . euros and urges them to “ride the tiger”.

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Within The musician’s letter of May 5, 2020, Antoine Pecqueur dares with this title: “The other Minister of Culture”. Then a ball of courtiers forms around her, calling her “rhyme”for convenience or to signify collusion. “I saw Rima. “Rima thinks…” His followers are another strength. His mentor is the former socialist mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, whom he mentored when the city was a stimulating cultural hotbed. Elisabeth Borne appreciates it. She has the confidence of Macron, whom she has known since the early 2010s. Jack Lang speaks highly of her, which can be helpful.

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