Overview
- A reading of texts by Charles Maurras is scheduled at the Médiathèque Ceccano as part of the Semaine provençale but the program has drawn public opposition.
- A petition organized by citizens, cultural workers and teachers has gathered signatures to demand the text be removed and to warn against normalizing racist language.
- Local authorities and the city library director initially defended the inclusion by promising the texts would be recontextualized for historical and literary study.
- The mayor of Avignon, Olivier Galzi, told local media he is now favorable to withdrawing the Maurras text from the program, marking a new stance by city leadership.
- Maurras is a documented antisemitic, royalist figure who was sentenced in 1945 for intelligence with the enemy under Vichy rule and the dispute echoes wider French debates over how public institutions handle works by collaborationist authors.