Françoise Nyssen Appointed French Minister of Culture

Françoise Nyssen, 66-year-old Franco-Belgian publisher of Actes Sud, has been named France's Minister of Culture under President Emmanuel Macron. A former molecular biology researcher turned publishing magnate, Nyssen leads Actes Sud, founded by her father Hubert Nyssen in the 1970s, which reported €85 million in revenue in 2015. The publishing house has expanded beyond books into a network of cultural spaces in Arles: the cultural association du Méjan (founded 1984 with Jean-Paul Capitani), which organizes the Jazz Festival of Arles, sacred music festivals, and exhibitions at the Chapel of Saint-Martin du Méjan; a 300-square-meter library with 40,000 titles; and an arthouse cinema acquired in 2014. Nyssen's appointment has been well-received by cultural professionals, praised by Le Figaro as "energetic, determined, simple, and direct." She joins a government led by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, with key ministries split between left and right: Gérard Collomb (Interior), Jean-Yves Le Drian (Foreign Affairs), Bruno Le Maire (Economy), and Gérald Darmanin (Public Accounts). Macron, who studied philosophy and piano and assisted philosopher Paul Ricoeur, has thus placed a competent independent figure at the helm of culture, tasked with implementing an electoral program that raised several interesting cultural policy questions.