Tours 2026, museums and the Opera at the center of electoral debates

Tours (Indre-et-Loire). Mayor Emmanuel Denis (left-wing coalition with the Ecologists), elected in 2020, is a candidate for a second term, and claims a positive record at the head of the City. Since 2020, Tours has reduced its debt to less than 200 million euros while maintaining a stable and then increasing budget (221 million euros excluding investments in 2025). In detail, the envelope allocated to culture and heritage increased between 2020 and 2025, going from 21.9 to 26.3 million according to Christophe Dupin, deputy for cultural affairs. This represents 12% of the City’s total budget, and an expenditure of 190 euros per inhabitant (Tours has 139,000 inhabitants). For comparison, the City of Brest (142,000 inhabitants) devoted 24.9 million euros to culture in 2025 out of an overall budget of 210.5 million. Christophe Dupin explains that the majority’s project for culture is based on “ transversality with other delegations » such as town planning, education, social issues, the environment. He cites the “Arts at school” and “Orchestra at school” programs, in collaboration with museums, the regional conservatory and performance halls. He also cites the installation of permanent works in public spaces during urban renovation operations. Among the more traditional measures, we note free access to museums for those under 26 and free access to libraries in the City and the Metropolis, as well as “social and solidarity pricing” in cultural establishments.

Museums require major restoration work

Pooling is a trend of Emmanuel Denis’ mandate, particularly for the museums of Tours. The city has three museums, plus the castle which has become an exhibition space, and the four establishments are managed by Hélène Jagot, appointed director in the summer of 2020. Christophe Dupin specifies that “the management of museums had to be reorganized and shared”because the museums of Tours had been dormant for many years. The City indeed had many vacancies in these museums, and several small museums had permanently closed under the previous majority (Musée du château du Plessis, Musée des Vins, Musée du Gemmail). If the current mayor has initiated work in certain establishments, there are currently no major projects in the museums, according to Hélène Jagot. Christophe Dupin confirms this but adds that “work on cultural facilities is part of a gray debt inherited from the previous majority”. Although the current majority has drawn up a multi-year investment plan for the renovation of buildings from an ecological perspective, it gives priority to educational establishments. The Museum of Fine Arts, whose state is worrying, certainly benefited from the partial repair of its roofs in 2023 (300,000 euros), but requires more significant interventions: a heritage study will be carried out in 2026 to assess the state of the building and the improvements to be undertaken. The Musée du Compagnonnage, unique in France, was partly renovated in 2023-2024 and now has a new entrance, a redesigned route and spaces more accessible to PRMs. Finally, the Natural History Museum has seen its aquarium and vivarium modernized, but other work will have to be undertaken. Following these developments, the town hall is proud of an increase in museum attendance, with 186,000 visitors in 2024 and more than 206,000 in 2025, thanks to a featured exhibition at the castle (the American artist of Street art Obey), while previous exhibitions struggled to attract a large audience despite a partnership with the Jeu de Paume (Paris).

Opera at the center of concerns

The other cultural facilities under direct management (seven libraries and media libraries, Grand Théâtre-Opéra de Tours and Cinémathèque) have not been the subject of major investments. However, the Opera has monopolized the energy of the municipal majority for several years due to a long social conflict linked to the status of the musicians of the Center Val de Loire-Tours Region Symphony Orchestra: they are in fact employed on a fixed-term contract of use (CDDU) by the City, and demand a lasting status. Christophe Dupin specifies that, at the end of the negotiations, a proposal was put forward to modify the contracts of thirty-two musicians. He adds that the situation was untenable since each performance “ was preceded by a strike notice. for three years. The municipal opposition, including former mayor Christophe Bouchet, regularly criticizes the management costs of the establishment as well as its budget which is around 6.7 million euros, of which the City of Tours contributes more than half (3.7 million). Christophe Dupin responds that the Métropole de Tours Val de Loire now contributes to the budget thanks to an agreement in 2024, and that the classification of the building as a whole as a Historic Monument at the end of 2023 opens the way to additional funding from the State. These will be necessary for the major renovation project still under study, the amount of which fluctuates “ between 20 and 40 million euros, depending on the options chosen,” according to the town hall.

The other major project is the construction of the new National Choreographic Center of Tours (CCNT), remodeled several times since 2020 and finally confirmed by Emmanuel Denis at the end of January 2026. A new building of 1,600 square meters “more sober” and ecologically designed by Antonio Virga will be built by 2029 for an amount of approximately 13 million euros, financed by the City and other communities. The banks of the Loire, listed as a UNESCO world heritage site (2000), benefit from festivals and cultural events for five months, despite criticism from the opposition: since 2022, the opposition has criticized the mayor for having canceled the July 13 fireworks display to protect biodiversity on the banks. Christophe Dupin explains that the fireworks disrupted the nesting of the terns, and that now many visitors come to see the natural spectacle of the “flight of the terns” in summer. Finally, the City of Tours signed, in 2025, an agreement with Bourges 2028 to be associated with part of the programming, in particular an offshoot of the “Towards an International of Rivers” project created by the writer Camille de Toledo and the Lieu Unique (Nantes).

The right-wing opposition criticizes low tourist attractiveness

Emmanuel Denis will face seven candidates, including some from the breakup of the left-wing coalition. The right mainly supports Christophe Bouchet (LR and center) but Horizons presents Henri Alfandari, without the support of Renaissance. Since 2020, opposition criticism has focused on transport and urban planning, but culture was the subject of debate during the sale of municipal heritage (Château du Plessis) and during the crisis at the Tours Opera. On this point Christophe Bouchet, former mayor of Tours (2017-2020), specifies that “nothing is resolved despite the mayor’s announcements”. He adds that the renovation of the Museum of Fine Arts should be “a priority” and that despite the increase in the cultural budget, Tours does not attract enough visitors, due to lack of investment and a cultural policy consistent with the tourist development of the city. He finally points to projects undertaken under his mandate and which have not been carried out, including the Architecture and Heritage Interpretation Center, supposed to open in 2027.