Actes Sud's Nyssen made France's culture minister

Francoise Nyssen, chief executive officer of French publisher Actes Sud, has been appointed culture minister in Prime Minister Edouard Philippe’s new government.

This follows the election of centrist Emmanuel Macron as French president earlier this month.

However the appointment could be only provisional if Macron’s party La République En Marche! does not win a majority in the parliamentary elections to be held in two rounds on 11th and 18th June.

Not surprisingly, the book business has welcomed the appointment. Nyssen is “a great publisher and bookseller,” said Guillaume Husson, director of the French booksellers association (Syndicat de la Librairie Française, SLF). Actes Sud owns 10 bookshops, of which six are in Paris, two are in Marseilles and one each is in Arles and Calais.  

Nyssen “has shown her capacity to create an all-encompassing culture policy in the Arles region,” said Pierre Dutilleul, director of the French publishers association (Syndicat National de l’Edition, SNE). “Actes Sud is a real success story, and beyond books includes cinema, theatre, music, phography, modern art and now a school.” It fares well abroad, and Nyssen is “militant in her defence of freedom of speech.”

Marie Sellier, president of the authors society Société des Gens de Lettres (SGDL), was visiting Actes Sud when Nyssen’s appointment was announced. “I am delighted,” Sellier told The Bookseller. “Françoise is strong minded, frank, enthusiastic and passionate about what she does. I do not believe she will sweep issues under the carpet, and am confident she will tackle the problem of authors’ pensions with energy.”

During a moving handover ceremony, outgoing culture minister Audrey Azoulay said that she “could not think of anyone to whom she would rather leave the keys of this ministry,” Livres Hebdo reported. Nyssen is standing down as c.e.o. of Actes Sud where she will be replaced by her husband and development director Jean-Paul Capitani, the trade publication added.

Nyssen achieved international attention when the Arles-based publisher in the south of France received The Bookseller Adult Trade Publisher Award at the London Book Fair in April 2016.