Paris (AFP)

The movement to "occupy" theaters to demand the reopening of cultural venues, closed since the end of October due to a pandemic, is starting to gain momentum, with mobilization in three national theaters.

Thursday began the occupation of the Théâtre de l'Odéon in Paris, a movement that continues and was followed on Tuesday by a mobilization at the Théâtre de la Colline, in eastern Paris, at the Théâtre national de Strasbourg (TNS).

These are three of the four national theaters (excluding opera and dance), the fourth being the Comédie-Française.

"For us, this is a national movement. We have feedback from unions in the region and things are starting to move, they are organizing," Karine Huet, deputy secretary general of SNAM-CGT, told AFP. (National Union of Music Artists Syndicates of France), which is one of some 50 people who were inside the Odeon on Tuesday evening.

The movement received the support of LFI deputy François Ruffin who made the trip Tuesday to the Odeon.

The Minister of Culture went to the Odeon on Saturday and promised to continue the exchanges, but Tuesday, the CGT Spectacle affirmed that it was continuing the movement.

"Occupy! Occupy! Occupy", she called in a statement in which she specifies that this mobilization is "in the wake of the occupation of roundabouts", in reference to the movement of "yellow vests".

- "Straight into the wall" -

At the same time, a few dozen drama students entered the Théâtre de la Colline in Paris, holding up signs that read "Essential opening," "life without culture, straight into the wall," " Bachelot if you do not open, we come to play at your place ".

"Several dozen students demonstrate outside while 30 students have been allowed into the theater," led by director and playwright Wajdi Mouawad, who was in rehearsal, a theater source told the AFP.

According to the source, they are students of the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art (CNSAD), the Higher School of Dramatic Art (Esad) and the School of the studio theater of Asnières, a conservatory in regional influence of Paris.

Also associated with the movement 51 students in scenography-costumes, acting, directing, dramaturgy and management-creation, who have decided to settle 24 hours a day in the premises of the National Theater of Strasbourg, "until a response concrete state ".

For them, this is an "act of mobilization (which) aims to challenge the public authorities on the seriousness of our situations and to improve the rights of intermittent workers affected by the health crisis", they said in a statement.

They also called on "all the national higher schools of dramatic art in France and conservatories to join" the movement.

In addition to the reopening of cultural places in compliance with health instructions, the demonstrators are demanding, among other things, an extension of the white year for intermittents, its extension to all precarious and seasonal workers and emergency measures in the face of precariousness. financial and psychological students.

In the same vein, about thirty intermittents of the show spent the night from Monday to Tuesday in a theater in Pau, according to the demonstrators and the town hall.

© 2021 AFP