The “revolutionary” Tour de Nice by Robert Injey continues with an ambitious goal. To remove two illustrious squatters from the Palais Sarde: the Prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes and the President of the General Council, who occupy two official apartments.
For him, “There is enough space at the CADAM for the official accommodations of the prefect or the general council.” This is enough to make the mayor of Nice dizzy, as he boasts of having eliminated all squats in the city.
The idea of the Left Front candidate is not to transform the Palais Sarde into a Winter Palace and occupy a symbolic place of power… Far from it: His goal is to free up representation spaces, more or less used, to create a museum with an international vocation, symbolically renamed the Louvre of Nice.
We let him speak: “Today we are proceeding with our fourth inauguration of a project we want to implement. This project concerns the Palais Sarde: the building is open to the public a few days a year. To give this palace a true public destination, to awaken it from the slumber it has been in for 30 years is our primary requirement. The second is to equip the city of Nice with a museum of global significance. If Nice is already ‘rich’ from this point of view, with examples like MAMAC, the Chagall, Matisse or Chéret museums, a museum is missing that enhances the attractiveness of our city.”
Nothing has been said about the typology of the collections but, as we know, revolutionary gestures don’t concern themselves with details. Then, due to lack of “Cossacks” to follow through, we remain with intentions and … a keepsake photo.
Needless to say, we would welcome more revolutionaries like this. Normally, everyone wants to seize power; Robert Injey, however, wants to promote culture!
The award for the most endearing and innovative campaign is likely to be assigned to him. Instead of bombarding with incongruous proposals destined to remain in drawers, a little good irony does no harm.
And then, as Horace said: “castigat ridendo mores.” Who can say that Robert Injey does not speak his mind? Is it truly useful and productive to keep such a beautiful palace for two official apartments and a few receptions per year?
For the record: since the administrative services were transferred to the CADAM in 1982, the former palace of the Kings of Sardinia has served only once for an international ceremony. It was in February 2001 when, in the grand dining room, the Treaty of Nice was signed by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the European Union in the presence of the President of the Republic and the French Prime Minister.
After his election in 2008, the new mayor, who, as president of the General Council, used the right wing of the palace, unsuccessfully attempted to make it the municipal representation palace, a role since then assigned to Villa Masséna.
