Politics · France · 9 hrs ago
French book groups launch campaign against cuts to reading support
About 60 book-sector organizations in France launched a campaign on 27 October called #SauvonsLaLecture.
The groups include booksellers, publishers, writers, librarians and professional photographers, and they are calling for stronger public support for reading.
They say state funding for bookshops, publishers, literary events and libraries fell by 25% in 2026, from €23.2 million to €17.4 million, excluding public institutions.
The groups say the 2027 budget plan confirms the cuts, which they describe as a threat to the book sector and to reading as a shared public resource.
They argue that reading supports personal freedom and public health, while official statistics cited in the campaign say people in France spend 6.3 times more time on screens than reading books, rising to ten times among young people.
The campaign is asking for a more ambitious public policy for reading, but no further government action is specified.
About 60 organisations in France’s book sector launched the #SauvonsLaLecture campaign on 27 October.
They are calling for an ambitious public policy to support reading and protesting what they describe as a historic reduction in state funding.
The organisations say state funding for bookshops, publishers, literary events and libraries fell by 25% in 2026.
They say the draft 2027 budget confirms the cuts.
The campaign argues that reading is a public good and a tool for personal freedom, health and civic life.
- Who
- A collective of about 60 organisations in France’s book sector, including booksellers, publishers and librarians.
- What
- They launched the #SauvonsLaLecture campaign and called for ambitious public support for reading.
- When
- Tuesday, 27 October 2026.
- Where
- In France; the campaign was launched on social media and in the press.
- Why
- They object to reductions in state funding for the book sector and say reading deserves stronger public support.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
State intervention spending on the book sector was €23.2 million, according to the campaign signatories.
The organisations say state intervention spending fell to €17.4 million, a reduction of 25%.
About 60 book-sector organisations launched the #SauvonsLaLecture campaign.
The campaign signatories said the draft budget confirmed the cuts.
- Campaign
- #SauvonsLaLecture
- Organisations involved
- About 60
- State funding reduction
- 25% in 2026, according to the organisations
- State intervention spending
- €23.2 million in 2025; €17.4 million in 2026
- Launch date
- 27 October 2026
What people are saying
Reading is an essential public good, a lever for emancipation and public health: it deserves public policy commensurate with the social, democratic and cultural challenges.
The budget cuts truncate imaginations.
We are witnessing the quiet destruction of an entire value chain, but also, for all citizens, of a public good: reading, a tool of emancipation that underpins our civilisation.