Marine Le Pen appoints Jacobelli as culture minister; Ballard tipped for the media portfolio
His background in the broadcasting industry did not prevent his appointment from coming as a surprise to several of our interviewees in the cultural sector. In recent years, they had rarely seen Laurent Jacobelli speak on issues affecting their sector in the National Assembly, where the MP for Moselle sits on the Committee on National Defence and the Armed Forces. “Perhaps they’re pulling a François Léotard on him:… he wanted defence and ended up as Minister for Culture ,” one of them remarks. Laurent Jacobelli has voiced his views on the subject of the arts on a few occasions. In 2023, he criticised the Lorraine-based festival Le Jardin du Michel for booking the rapper Médine. Two years later, he contested a €30,000 grant to the Laiterie venue in Strasbourg on…