The cost of the "presidential building site" of the castle of Villers-Cotterêts debated in the National Assembly

While some opposition deputies consider the project "disproportionate", the entourage of the Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot, underlines to AFP "the level of dilapidation" of the site, a "heritage scandal".

"This is the first time under the Fifth Republic that a President of the Republic has placed his + major construction site + outside Paris", unlike the Center Pompidou, the Grand Louvre, the BNF or the Quai Branly Museum, insists -on rue de Valois.

In the hemicycle, the deputy LR Valérie Bazin-Malgras, although "delighted" by the "renovation of this Renaissance castle", said she was "struck by the disproportion of the resources devoted to it".

"This casts doubt on the initial ambition of this great presidential project," she said during the review of the 2021 budget of the Ministry of Culture.

"The planned project now appears to be quite disproportionate at a time when everyone is invited to revise their ambitions downwards", added Frédérique Dumas, of the Libertés et Territoires group.

"This is not because the works are slipping, but because private funding and patronage are not there, which we can understand", in this period of crisis, qualified the deputy LR Gilles Carrez.

In a parliamentary report, Gilles Carrez specifies that the assumption of responsibility of the State increases because of "work not initially planned, of which 60 million euros for the repair of the courtyard and the closed and covered spaces called to host private activities ".

"No sponsorship contribution could be mobilized, while 25 million euros were expected in this regard", he adds.

For those around Ms. Bachelot, this project is "a very strong act of deconcentration" and for the French-speaking world.

"It is certain that it is a very large sum, which reflects the presidential commitment to the subject," he continues. "This important restoration project is repairing a real heritage scandal: the abandonment by the State, owner of the castle since 1794, of this major witness to French history and architecture."

Mr. Macron had announced in 2018 his wish to make the castle of Villers-Cotterêts, a XNUMXth century royal castle built by François Ier, a "laboratory" of the Francophonie.

It is in this castle that was promulgated in 1539, the ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts which made the use of the French language obligatory in all the official documents.