Strasbourg's Green Mayor Jeanne Barseghian continues to claim: "Culture is one of our priorities during this term in office." In practice, however, this priority takes on strange forms: to save costs, Strasbourg's museums will firstly have a one-hour lunch break from October 3rd and secondly, close two days a week (instead of just one as before).

Of course, the closures should be staggered: the Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, the Musée Tomi Ungerer, the historical and the cathedral museums will be closed on Mondays and Wednesdays, while the museums of the Palais Rohan and the Musée Alsacien will be closed on Tuesdays and Thursdays;

the Musée Aubette 1928 decides its own opening hours.

It's a series of closures designed to guarantee, as the mayor stresses, that Strasbourg residents and visitors from outside can go to one of the city's nine museums any day - though not necessarily the one they want.

They are only open from Friday to Sunday;

an opening of six days should also be guaranteed for major exhibitions.

Barseghian justifies her actions with the geopolitical context of the Ukraine war and the resulting higher energy costs, which she puts at several million euros for the Euro metropolis;

she would rather introduce an additional day of rest than increase the current admission price of 7.50 euros, the mayor assures people in a friendly manner.

The argument about energy costs is surprising in that nothing similar has been heard from other French cities so far.

The first indications of the closure plans had already leaked out at the beginning of August, when the crisis seemed even less urgent - apparently other factors have to be taken into account.

Incidentally, Barseghian included in her announcement that the opening times are now being adjusted to the flow of visitors,

Strasbourg's museums have been in crisis for years

The crisis in the Strasbourg museums is not new.

There has been a glaring shortage of staff for a long time: Seventeen positions have not been filled since 2014, which means that the staffing level has large gaps that were only patched up poorly and costly by temporary workers.

The decision was made to remedy the situation and preferred to reduce operations.

The question arises as to whether the nine museums will continue to be able to receive 550,000 visitors a year (the previous figure).

Resistance is forming from all sides: the CGT trade union has called for a strike, and Fabienne Keller, as the mayor's conservative rival, has started a petition together with the Macronist MP Bruno Studer.

Indeed, Barseghian is doing Strasbourg no favours.

The Rhine metropolis is proud of its humanistic heritage and uses it as a tourist argument.

In 2024 Strasbourg will be the world capital of the book, museum closures seem provincial and do not do justice to an international city.

The closures strongly suggest that the mayor's priorities are not in the area of ​​culture.

Barseghian is now, after the mayor of Grenoble, Éric Piolle, and others (FAZ of July 6, 2020), another example of the fact that green mayors in France have a strained relationship with high culture, to say the least.

Structurally, this may be due to the fact that the French Greens - unlike their German colleagues - have fewer intersections with educated middle-class milieus;

they are more strongly influenced by a left-wing protest scene.

However, this is not the case with Barseghian.

Born in 1980 and elected to office in 2020, the politician is a trained lawyer (specializing in German-French and environmental law), appears discreet and solid;

she only joined the Greens in 2013.

Either she has now adopted the prejudices of her political milieu, or she is again making an unfortunate decision, as she has made several times before.

Be that as it may: The cultural coldness that sets in as soon as the course is set in the sign of lack e,