Perpignan (AFP)

The prefect of Pyrénées-Orientales on Monday evening seized the Montpellier administrative court with a request for the suspension of the orders of the mayor RN of Perpignan relating to the reopening of four municipal museums from Tuesday, the prefecture told AFP.

Louis Aliot had taken these orders a little earlier in the afternoon without waiting for a possible announcement from the government concerning these places closed since the end of October because of the Covid-19.

The mayor of Perpignan had told AFP that he wanted to reopen the four municipal museums of the Catalan city: "culture is essential to the life of Perpignan residents like all French people, it is high time to reopen cultural places, some say. , we are doing it".

"We are experimenting with the reopening of cultural places in our museums. Obviously in compliance with the necessary health rules" and free of charge during the first month, he said.

The president of the LREM group in the National Assembly and former Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner criticized this decision, taken in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

"In #Perpignan, @louis_aliot wants us to believe that the National Rally defends culture by opening museums in defiance of sanitary rules. But behind the com operation, no one is fooled by the populism of the RN. Culture will know protect yourself from the extremist virus, ”he wrote on Twitter.

The Minister of Culture had for her part exchanged Monday for two hours, via zoom, with about thirty officials of museums, art centers, public and private monuments, in the presence of her counterpart of Health Olivier Véran.

According to Roselyne Bachelot, public and private museums and monuments have shown themselves willing to make efforts, in particular by tightening the gauges, to be able to reopen as soon as possible.

It is about building "a model which is absolutely safe in terms of health and which allows our establishments to function," she said on the sidelines of a visit to the Sèvres porcelain factory.

“Overall I felt such a desire to reopen that they are willing to toughen up, to really ensure the safety of a resilient model on the gauges,” she said.

According to her, the professionals showed "a very great openness to go from the gauge of 4 m2 of the first confinement to a gauge of 10 m2".

Monday morning, on BFMTV, she assured that museums and monuments would be the first to reopen "when we have a recession".

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