The culture pass is expensive and its effects are highly contested by players in the sector. Consequently, the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati wishes to fundamentally reform this totem of the president’s cultural policy.
Five years after its introduction, the minister from LR, who joined Emmanuel Macron and who survived the dissolution, proposes to put an end to what made the system original: a universal subsidy of 300 euros for all young people aged 18 years, to spend as they wish on culture.
No more universality or self-service
Friday, the day after the presentation of the Barnier government’s first budget, Rachida Dati took advantage of a platform at the World to suggest adjustments, after reports pointing out the limits of the system. The minister first wishes to adjust the amount offered to young people.
“Without renouncing the universality of the system, we must further assume that the Culture Pass is intended to correct inequalities in destiny”, she underlines, by giving “more to young people of modest means, without neglecting the middle classes” . She also wants to put an end to self-service which allows young people to spend their grant as they wish. A part will have to be devoted to bookings for live shows, largely shunned by beneficiaries who only devote one percent of their expenses to it.
Manga and cinema tickets
So far, young people favor purchases of books, including a large proportion of manga, and cinema, for three quarters of spending. This reform of the Culture Pass, which part of the sector was impatiently awaiting, should make it possible to “do better with less”, we argue on rue de Valois.
With 4.45 billion euros allocated (strict renewal of the amount allocated by the initial finance law last year), the Ministry of Culture considers itself relatively spared by the budgetary effort requested in 2025 but sees in the Pass Culture an important source of savings. Launched in 2019-2020, the system has benefited more than 3.4 million people since its generalization in 2021, affecting a large majority of each age group.