Olivier Galzi, 54 years old, journalist and former presenter of Journal de France 2 then news meetings on the LCI channel, was elected mayor of Avignon (Vaucluse) without a label in March 2026, facing the union of the Socialist Party and La France insoumise. He has also chaired the Greater Avignon urban community since June.
Will the fact that the city of Avignon has been placed by the State in the alert network on local finances affect its cultural budget?
Culture is almost 44 million euros in the initial 2026 budget, but we have constraints. The State continues to reduce its allocations and I inherit catastrophic finances. Without corrective action, we will turn off the lights from 2028, there will be no more money for culture and no more money for nothing.
That’s to say ?
The City structurally spends more than it earns. In 2025, after its current expenses, it had 21.7 million euros to repay its debt which amounted to 22.3 million euros for the year. So there was already a lack of money even before financing new investments. That being said, culture remains essential because it is one of the rare areas that allows us to generate unity.
However, you have already reduced subsidies to cultural associations by 10%…
In fact, it is not 10% but 5%, because the subsidies are paid in two installments and the first half had already been paid when I arrived. We cut the second payment by 10%, which gives, in the annual budget, 5%, the rate applied by the State itself.
Which means that when the State reduces its funding, the City must follow?
We cannot do anything differently from the State. We are in co-financing with him on the National Orchestra, the Opera or the Conservatory, and if he reduces his endowment, we are not protected.
Which resulted in the cancellation in April of the summer exhibition entrusted to Macha Makeïeff (author, director and visual artist) at the Palais des Papes…
It has nothing to do with budget cuts! It was not me who made the decision, it was the previous Town Hall which first promised the exhibition to Ms Makeïeff then realized that there was no money. The budget was 500,000 euros.
Do you have any record of this cancellation?
Yes, in a letter from the former municipal team that I could provide you with.
And regarding the cancellation of the 50th anniversary of the Petit Palais?
It’s the same, not a financing line. No one knows the exceptional holdings of the Petit Palais, in particular the Italian primitives from the Campana collection, because the museum is never open due to lack of means to pay a guard and secure the works. I prefer to keep a low profile rather than promise fireworks that are impossible to keep. Moreover, at the end of September, during a meeting with the Minister of Culture and the director of the Louvre, we agreed that the museum could bear the “Louvre en Avignon” brand. We are therefore considering the reopening of the city via the historic access to the Avignon Bridge…
The Petit Palais Museum in Avignon, in 2007
With what funding?
It’s not in the City’s coffers that we’re going to find the resources! I am trying to get this project included in the State-region plan and by focusing on patronage. We are working on (creating) an endowment fund.
Do you already have your co-founders?
I have two out of three, two large regional companies. I’m looking for the third one and hope to put it together by the end of the year.
Can you name them and the future fund and give us an idea of the endowment?
No, for the moment, I prefer to keep it for myself, but to give you an idea, on the “Louvre en Avignon” project alone, it represents 30 million euros.
Since this summer, the six municipal museums have been subject to temporary closures. Are they due to your savings policy?
The closures are due to a lack of staff, agents sometimes absent on long-term sick leave, after having been poorly supported in the past. In certain departments, absenteeism reaches 30 to 40%. Added to this is a budgetary reality which does not allow for temporary replacements. These closures are not due to the policy that I wish to pursue. This is why I am going to create pricing for museums in Avignon…
Will Avignon’s museums all become chargeable again?
Nothing is free in life, everything has a cost. You have to pay for securing the works, night and day guards, and electricity. This cost was the exclusive responsibility of the City, it is no longer tenable.
How much could museum ticketing bring in?
Probably between 200,000 and 400,000 euros, which is far from enough to balance a budget, but I will try to preserve free access for Avignon residents with free access one Sunday or one weekend per month.
While finances recover, the temporary closures are likely to last…
It’s a possibility. This will be indexed to our budgetary capacity and that is why everyone must make efforts to preserve the cultural offer. Instead of talking about spending with money we don’t have, we’ll have to talk about revenue.
Exactly, does the weight of the Avignon Festival leave enough room for culture the rest of the year?
It’s great to have the festival, we must preserve this achievement. But it only works three weeks per year, and Avignon is 52 weeks. It is also a major project, costing 1 million euros to Greater Avignon and 1 million euros to the City.
So you are developing your own major projects?
Yes, with my heritage assistant and the performing arts assistant, we work on a dynamic culture all year round with previews and artist residencies, using the network that wakes up at the time of the festival. I also have a project, “Les Pontificales”, the medieval counterpart of the Roman Days of Nîmes.
At what cost and with what funding?
The “Pontificales” will cost around 300,000 euros, and as this project will operate with its own revenues and not from the municipal budget, we expect to break even from the first year. My goal is to continue to offer culture for everyone without spending money we don’t have.
You judged in April (on France Inter) that the Palestinian cause had taken up too much space at the festival during the 2025 edition. Do you want a right to have a say in the “in” programming?
Absolutely no right of inspection! The vocation of a mayor is not to interfere in the artistic programming of a festival and I do not have the soul of a censor. But the event itself must not become the mouthpiece of a single cause, however noble it may be.
But where do you draw the line when you supported the eviction of a festival-goer (who had launched an appeal to denounce “the massacres orchestrated by the Israeli state in Gaza and the occupied territories”, editor’s note)?
When we make a stand on the Place du Palais des Papes in the name of the festival, it bothers me. When we create something, we do what we want, that doesn’t bother me.
The Palace of the Popes in Avignon.
