Christian Estrosi’s plan for the redevelopment of the TNN has certainly not yet been digested by his opponents.
It’s true that in the middle of an election campaign, no one is there to shower praises.
In any case, criticisms are flying, with each person arranging the facts to suit their arguments.
Yesterday it was Patrick Allemand who spoke up, today it’s Benoît Kandel. Left and right united against their number one enemy.
During the launch of his election campaign for the municipal elections in Nice, Christian Estrosi announced that the Théâtre National de Nice (TNN) would be demolished.
First act: Only a week ago, he planned for the current 1,281 seats of the TNN to be relocated to the Church of the Franciscans, which can only accommodate 420.
Second act: Benoit Kandel, a candidate from the right and independents for the municipal elections in Nice, questioned the Minister of Culture on this unlikely transfer, which requires a reduction of more than half of the theater’s seating capacity. An operation impossible without seeing the city of Nice deprived of the subsidies allocated by the Ministry of Culture to this theater, which benefits from the status of a national drama center.
Third act: Understanding the ridiculousness of his proposal, Christian Estrosi is forced to hastily imagine a second theater with 800 to 1000 seats. He then declares that he will create a theater in the Nice Exhibition Palace. Estrosi, who is never afraid to throw out numbers, explains that bringing the TNN up to standard would cost an “astronomical amount.” But, according to him, demolishing it, setting up a theater in the Franciscans’, creating a garden in its place, and now building a second theater in the Exhibition Palace would be entirely within the city’s financial capabilities.
The comedy of the situation is not over: Christian Estrosi previously explained to the people of Nice that to compensate for the demolition of the Acropolis, the Exhibition Palace would be officially dedicated to hosting congresses…
With this new theater inside the Exhibition Palace, business tourism is now kindly requested to relocate to the Plaine du Var… And all this supposedly to boost the heart of Nice…
The farce eventually takes a far less pleasant turn for hoteliers, restaurateurs, and shopkeepers, who are far from delighted by the economic consequences of such an operation. Let’s not doubt that there will be a few more absurd announcements to try to explain to us the soundness of this destruction, as well as that of the two Novotel and NH hotels, which, according to the mayor, are “very degraded” even though they have just been renovated. Naturally, all this will not weigh on the public finances either… A comedy that turns into a tragedy!
Everyone knows there’s a lot of “Macron” in Estrosi. It is now known there is increasingly more “Hidalgo”!
