Santonian News Central

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Saintonge


by Célestine-Marie Goulouzelle in Saintes
29 September 2023 - 1544h
SAINTES – in the biennial meeting of the National Council for Higher Education (Conseil national de l’enseignement supérieur, CNES), Saintonge adjusted the university quotas to be effective in the school term starting 2024.

National Council for Higher Education
The CNES is a national body composed of government representatives and representatives of tertiary education institutions. With the Ministry of Education as the lead agency, the CNES includes representatives from the Ministries of Labour, Culture & Sport, Commerce, Industry, Agriculture & Food, Defence, Finance, Health, Interior, and Social Welfare. Also included were representatives of the state-owned non-profit Santonian Education Financing Company (Société de financement de l’éducation, SFE), which gives out and administers student loans in Saintonge. All of the Santonian universities and polytechnics are also represented, as are regional groupings of vocational schools.

As a statutory body, the CNES was created by the 1967 Loi Gestat, one of whose aims was to make the Santonian education system responsive to the needs of society and economy.

“Quotas”
Every two years, CNES fulfils this role by reviewing and adjusting the so-called ‘scholarship quotas’ (quotas des bourses). Unlike what the name suggests, these quotas are not exactly limitation of slots for study. Rather, the university quotas are the maximum number of university students that the government will subsidise and/or will be eligible for low-cost student loans. These are usually divided into three classes:

• Class A quotas are completely free tertiary education, paid for by the government or its agencies, with the student required to render public service (retour de service) for a certain length of time after graduation. This is common for courses such as military science or agriculture; and for “Royal Institutions” such as the Royal School of Engineers or the Royal Institute of Aeronautics and Space.
• Class B quotas are partially subsidised tertiary education, partially paid for by the government, with the student financing the rest of the tuition via low-cost student loans from the SFE. This is common for fields that Saintonge deems it urgently needs. While graduates are encouraged to enter public service, they have less restrictions on pursuing private employment or endeavours.
• Class C quotas are granted low-cost SFE student loans for paying the entire tuition; government does not directly finance any part of the education. This is used for fields that Saintonge regularly needs or will be needed in the future. There is no requirement to render public service.
• The so-called “Class X” quotas are neither funded by the government nor eligible for low-cost SFE student loans. Instead, the student may opt to pay for the tuition out-of-pocket or avail of regular-cost student loans, which makes studying under Class X quotas more expensive. The name is a misnomer, as this is not technically a quota, but a term used for the rest of the slots and courses not falling under any of the aforementioned quotas.

The best students will get to qualify for the quota slots. The net effect of the policy is to exert financial incentives for intellectually-capable students to take up fields of study that are needed by the society and the economy. As Education Minister Geneviève-Marie Gestat said in 1967, “We do not want a society in which all people are literature majors; neither does our economy benefit if all workers are marine biologists. The policy is in place to direct students to fields that the society, the economy, and the country need.”

Fields
All fields of study or courses being offered in Saintonge are classified under the quotas. A certain course may be considered within one quota: for instance, all 1,000 slots for International Relations and Diplomacy are under a Class A quota. Almost all of its graduates end up in the Santonian diplomatic corps. Conversely, some fields may be completely excluded: Gender Studies (only offered by the University of Saintes), Fashion Design (only offered by the Universities of Saintes and of Nyon), and Syrixian Literature (only offered by the University of Coire) are not eligible for scholarships and subsidies – the so-called “Class X” quotas. Interestingly, Theology is also a “Class X” quota: those studying for the priesthood theoretically pay full tuition, but the Santonian National Church operates the seminaries and pays for the education. This is an example of the employer completely subsidizing the education of its future employees.

Most courses, though, fall within multiple quotas: Agronomy, for instance, has 2,202 Class A slots, 3,107 Class B slots, and 4,821 Class C slots. Having ‘quotas’ does not mean that Santonian tertiary institutions can only offer a total of 11,130 slots for Agronomy; in fact, there are more than 16,000 places for Agronomy in Santonian tertiary institutions. This means that the remaining 5,000 places will neither be subsidised nor be eligible for low-cost student loans (but can be availed by paying normal tuition or via regular-cost student loans).

Changes
CNES added a total of 10,231 Class A slots, 33,289 Class B slots, and 68,280 Class C slots for the term starting 2024. Still, despite the expansion, many fields of study sustained cuts in their quotas.

Many humanities courses suffered a reduction of quotas, a continuation of the trend from the previous review in 2021. For the first time, Santonian Literature ceased to have a Class A quota, now only having 2,889 Class B and 5,292 Class C slots. Anthropology lost its Class B slots, having lost its Class A slots in 2021. Fine Arts became a “Class X” quota for the first time. Other fields sustaining cuts included Theatre Studies, History, Business Administration, Tourism Management, Mass Communication, Linguistics, Political Science, Sociology, Archaeology, Behavioural Science, Environmental Studies, Library Science, and various area studies such as Gothis Studies and Craviterian Studies.

There are some humanities fields that benefited, though: Psychology and Education saw big increases, largely because the Santonian government projects a need for teachers and psychologists for the increasing number of schoolchildren. The influx of Predicean children escaping the war exposed the Santonian education system’s lack of redundancy: the number of educators in Saintonge are just enough for local students, but could not cope with a sudden increase in students. Because Saintonge will need more Social Workers throughout the country, the quota for Social Work also increased massively: its Class A quotas were doubled, and its Class B quotas increased by 87%.

Sciences
Sciences, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses benefitted greatly from the increase, with dozens of courses doubling their quotas. Most were concerned with technology, computer science, hard sciences, and healthcare. Robotics and Artificial Intelligence increased their quotas more than threefold: Robotics now has 803 Class A slots, 2,288 Class B slots, and 4,020 Class C slots. Artificial Intelligence now has 367 Class A slots, 1,094 Class B slots, and 2,667 Class C slots. This coincides with the planned opening of Artificial Intelligence courses at the Universities of Alexandria, of Nyon, and of Plaisance in the next two terms. Currently, the course is only offered by the University of Saintes and the Ducal University of the Pouilles. Meanwhile, Computer Science itself increased its quota by 33%.

Hard and esoteric sciences also benefitted. Physics and Astronomy doubled their quota, while Materials Science, Biochemistry, and Molecular Biology increased by more than 25%. For the graduate courses, intersectional studies received a boost. Fields such as Astrophysics, Quantum Physics, Astrochemistry, Mathematical Chemistry, Nanochemistry, and Medical Physics were granted Class A slots for the first time.

Not all hard sciences were beneficiaries. Geography, Palaeontology, Meteorology, Geology, and Biology all had their quotas reduced.

Many engineering courses only had slight increases, except for Aerospace Engineering, which had seen an addition of 37 Class A slots, doubling its number.

Healthcare
Slots for healthcare-related professions were also expanded greatly. Bourses for Medicine increased to a total of 9,470 slots: 2,886 Class A slots, 3,201 Class B slots, and 3,383 Class C slots. Nursing also increased by 70%. Almost all other healthcare-related professions expanded: Pharmacy, Public Health, Nutrition, Medical Technology, Radiologic Technology, Occupational Health, Physical Therapy, Dentistry, Speech Pathology, and Physical Therapy. Orthotics-Prosthetics and Respiratory Therapy were also granted Class A quotas for the first time. Optometry failed to gain Class A slots but its Class B slots increased by 10%.

CNES again refused applications for bourses for the study of Chiropractic Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine, deeming them as ‘pseudoscientific fields’. These two courses are not offered by any public university in Saintonge; only two small private tertiary institutions (in Saintes and in Bâle) offer them. Chiropractic Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine, however, can still be taken under the Class X quota. On the other hand, Homeopathic Medicine is proscribed in Saintonge – it does not even fall within a Class X quota: this course cannot be taken and paid for through regular SFE student loans.

Meanwhile, due to the boom in pet ownership and demands of Santonian agriculture, slots for Veterinary Medicine also increased by 80%.

Partial Opening to Non-Santonians
The CNES also introduced a rule opening Class A quotas to non-Santonians. Previously, foreigners resident in Saintonge can only apply to Class C quotas, but the current rule allows them to apply for Class A quotas (but not Class B). Non-resident foreigners may also apply to Class A quotas (but not Class B or C quotas). The Class A quotas for a particular field will only be opened to foreigners if the slots are unfilled.

Only Class A quotas were opened because Class A quotas have a mandatory return of service (retour de service). Thus, Saintonge would provide a scholarship to non-citizens; in return, these non-citizens are required to serve in public service or work in Saintonge. In effect, Saintonge is trying to recruit the best minds globally for the Santonian government and/or the Santonian economy.

This is also because some of the quotas were left unfilled in the past years. For example, the Class A Nursing slots were only 87% filled in the 2021-2022 term and never reached 90% filled during the past ten years. Opening the slots would enable Saintonge to meet the projected need for nurses by recruiting from abroad at the earliest stage of their career building. It is likely that Nursing, Medical Technology, Radiologic Technology, Dentistry, and Nutrition will have to open its newly-increased Class A slots to foreigners starting the 2024 term. This initiative is different from the E-CURIE Programme.

E-Curie Programme
Because it is authorised by a different legislation (1951 Loi des échanges éducatifs or 1951 Loi Landry), the number of scholarships under the E-Curie Programme remain unchanged. Unlike the Class A quotas, students studying under the E-Curie Programme are actually encouraged to return to their countries of origin. Also, a substantial portion of living expenses are paid for by the E-Curie Programme; whereas applying for the Class A slots as a foreigner will only pay for the tuition and not the living expenses.

This will lead to Saintonge potentially welcoming a record number of foreign students in 2024-2025 term.

Technical and Vocational Schools
Courses offered by Technical and Vocational Schools, as diverse such as plumbing and carpentry to air traffic control and stenography, will still mostly fall under the Class C quota. Their (much-cheaper) tuition depends on the local government unit operating the school. Many offer discounts to their constituents; this makes studying technical or vocational courses either very inexpensive or completely free.

Access
Information about the slots available and the application process to these bourses can be accessed via this webpage from the CNES. The E-Curie Programme can be found in though this link.

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
2 October 2023 - 0933h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > In-Depth


by Caël Coatéval Le Carff in Saintes
24 July 2023 - 1203h
SAINTES – in the most recent report by the Bureau of Housing and Human Settlements (Bureau du logement et des établissements humains, BLEH) dated July 2023, Saintonge’s housing problems continue to grow. BLEH is a bureau under the Santonian Ministry of Public Works (Ministère des Travaux publics, MTP).

Indicators
BLEH uses several ‘indicators’ to assess the housing situation. Instead of using traditional parameters such as median housing price or median rent price, BLEH instead indexes them to income. The two main indicators are the rapport de prix et de revenu disponible (RPRD, “Price-to-disposable income ratio”) and the rapport de loyer et de revenu disponible (RLRD, “Rent-to-disposable income ratio”). In short, BLEH’s indicators track affordability rather than the raw cost of the houses.

Nationally, the RPRD breached the 4.0 ceiling set by the MTP – as of January 2023, it is at 4.022. As its name suggests, RPRD is the ratio between the price of a median home in a particular area divided by the median annual disposable income in that particular area. Thus, even if the median income is high a particular area like the city of Saintes, because of the high price of houses in the city, Saintes’ RPRD is a whopping 9.83 – meaning that the median house price in Saintes (468,753 IBU / £703,130) is 9.83 times the median annual disposable income in the city (47,686 IBU / £71,529).

Saintes is not the worst in the bunch. At the departmental level, Saintes ranks fourth in affordability: three departments have higher RPRDs:


All of the other four departments in the top five are in the province of the Griffonné, a touristy, expensive area popular for second homes for the wealthy. The national government has passed laws to clear the local policies it says are obstructing the building of low-cost housing in the four departments.

At the city level, the severity of the problem in the Griffonné is stark. Of cities with more than 30,000 population, Saintes is only twentieth when it comes to housing affordability; the top fifteen are all Griffonian cities.

Cities with the highest RPRDs

Flight to suburbs
Back to Saintes, even if it is not on the top of the lists, the Saintais feel the pinch. Gaulthier and Francine Lecoultre, first-time homebuyers, felt restricted in their options. Originally from the middle-class 12th arrondissement borough of St-Tristan-hors-les-Murs, the Lecoultres have a child on the way and Francine had made a decision to become a stay-at-home mother.

“We pretty much couldn’t find any place within the city that we can afford on my single income and our pooled savings,” said Gaulthier. “It’s either both of us continue to work and we have to shell out on childcare; or one of us stay at home and we shell out on the house.”

“It’s an easy trade-off decision to make,” added Francine, “but we can’t find a house… in St-Tristan, in the 12th arrondissement, or elsewhere in the city.”

Another couple, Thibault-Gabriel and Dorothée Thévou, found a three-bedroom home in Haute-Rivoire, a Saintes suburb across the Loine River in the Saine-et-Loine. “Some of our neighbours told us that we were lucky to get a house in Haute-Rivoire,” Thibault-Gabriel related. “They said that house prices are shooting up in the town… some blame us Saintes transplants.”


Some even go further afield, lured by cheaper prices, larger plots of land, and bigger houses. The Lecoultres finally settled on a four-bedroom house in the Cenise town of Mercantour-en-Saintais, five communes up the road from the Avenue de Rethondes. The town is right in the middle of the agricultural but rapidly suburbanising Bâcle Valley, just off Saintonge Autoroute 10.

“This place is big enough to accommodate our dream family size, and we can have a garden and a pool… without breaking the bank,” said Gaulthier. “My commute is long though.”

“Gone were the days where you can buy a decent home within the city on a single salary just like our parents did,” mused Francine. “I hope the government does something about it.”


Causes
In its 2023 report, BLEH cites three major reasons: tight supply due to slow housebuilding owing to bureaucratic delays, increased demand for housing, and urbanisation limits.

BLEH attributes Saintes’ issues to the city reaching its urbanisation limit. “There’s just not much place anymore to build more housing within city limits,” confirmed Saintes alderman Pierre-Paul de Buttinière (National), the councillor responsible for housing.

With the National-Green coalition gaining control of the Saintes City Hall in 2019, the city had since tried to resolve its housing backlog by greenlighting as many projects as possible. New towns in boroughs such as Saint-Clément, Caulaincourt, Tourbillon, Blondefontaine, and Saint-Fromond broke ground or reached completion.

There’s a catch though – the Green Party obtained an agreement that the city’s parks and “pristine and important natural habitats” remain undisturbed. Thus, the large parks within the city centre, the forest tracts within the city, the Sunset Hills and Kill Devil Hills, and other green areas within the city were off-limits to major developments. Thus the city was limited to developing brownfields or formerly agricultural lands.

Still, it was not enough as the National-Green city government of Mayor Marie-Angélique Koenig-Thoumyre continued and expanded the Logements alternatives of the previous Coalition government of Mayor Stéphane Mauconduit. In the Logements alternatives programme, Saintes tries to meet its housing quota by paying for housing in adjacent and nearby communes and suburbs. Thus, neighbouring cities like Gentilly, Aulnay-sous-Saintes, Rethondes, Longjumeau, Villeurbanne, Taillebourg, and Meaux have public housing estates partially or even fully funded by the city of Saintes.

While Saintes – and to a lesser extent, Saintonge’s second-largest city Nyon – have reached their urbanisation limits, the Griffonné’s main problem are bureaucratic delays. Local governments in the Griffonné are reluctant to develop their idle lands or increase the housing stock, mostly for fear of depressing property prices because of the increased supply. The problem is most acute in the Capoterre and the Trieux, where the Coalition (Liberal Party + Radical Party) -held departmental governments are either dragging their feet or outright denying permits to build public subsidised housing.


“It’s absolutely about property prices,” commented Brice-Gérard Tartenson, praetor for the intendance of Beaucaire (Capoterre), in a February 2023 interview for the local paper La Voix Griffonne. “The local governments here think that building subsidised housing will affect property values. They want to leave all the housebuilding to the market. But the private developers in the Capoterre aren’t interested in building affordable housing; they are more interested in chasing the high-end clients who want to build their palaces and mansions.”

The national government is trying to address the issue by passing anti-NIMBY laws and increasing eminent domain powers. However, urbanisation limits and local government obstruction are predominantly local reasons, these do not solely explain why house prices are going up nationally.

Increased Demand
Demand for housing surged in the last fifteen years due to a surge of immigration and refugees, mostly from Prydania and Predice. The Santonian population increased by ten million in the last decade, and with it, a demand for housing.

According to the 2023 BLEH estimates, Saintonge has a shortage of three million housing units, around 4% of the estimated 75.3 million housing units required. The city of Saintes has a deficit of 380,000 housing units, 7.5% of the 5.1 million housing units the city needs. Meanwhile, the Griffonné has shortages above 10%: Capoterre leads the way with 22% shortage.

The shortages are distributed unevenly. In 2023, 51 out of Saintonge’s 90 departments do not have a housing shortage. However, this masks the fact that just two years earlier in 2021, 70 out of the 90 departments do not have shortages. In nineteen departments, the housing stock became inadequate – even in an ostensibly rural department such as the Seudre.

Demand everywhere
As an example, the population of the Seudre grew by 10.83% between 2010 and 2020, and is continuing to grow thanks to its three major cities of Aurigny, Nieul-sur-Saulx, and Roanne. The Seudre’s housing fell from “adequate” to “inadequate” between the 2013 and 2023 reports; falling from a net surplus of 7,000 dwellings in 2013 to a deficit of 25,000 dwellings in 2023. It is still a below-average deficit of 2% but it has authorities concerned. “We are not keeping up with population growth and housing needs,” admitted Seudre’s departmental president Pascal-Quentin de Cubjac.

Consequently, the Seudre’s RPRD rose from 1.99 in 2013, to 2.86 in 2021, and is now approaching the ceiling at 3.47 in 2023. Its cities fare worse: the RPRDs of Aurigny, Nieul-sur-Saulx, and Roanne are at 6.02, 4.66, and 6.71, respectively.

The BLEH pointed out that aside from immigration, the admission of more than a million Predicean children under the Rossignol Agreement strained Saintonge’s housing sector in the period between 2021 and 2023. Previously-empty dwellings were occupied by the Predicean Youth Communities, lowering the available housing stock. BLEH analysed that the influx of refugees tipped seven departments – the Argens, the Saine-et-Loine, the Puy-d’Or, the Doire, the Basses-Alpes, the Saulx, and the Rance – from a housing surplus to a housing deficit. Somewhat controversially, BLEH estimated that the Predicean refugee influx contributed around 0.4 points to the increase in the national RPRD.


Statistics: RPRD (house price index) and RLRD (rent price index) in Saintonge’s 35 largest cities by population
Rent is too damn high
Not only are house prices affected, but rents as well. BLEH also tracks rent prices is using a similar parameter, the rapport de loyer et de revenue disponible (RLRD, “Rent-to-disposable income ratio”). The RLRD is the median monthly rent in a particular area divided by the median monthly disposable income. The RLRD, when multiplied by 100, is roughly the percentage of available money that will be spent on housing.

The MTP sets the RLRD national target ceiling at 0.500. Saintonge’s national RLRD is dangerously close at 0.490. Eight departments already exceed the target – the city of Saintes, the four Griffonian departments, and three more surprising newcomers: the southern departments of the Bouche-du-Rhâne, the Lauter, and the Lac.


In Saintes (RLRD 0.615), the median monthly rent is £3,666 (2,444 IBU), which is 61.5% of the median monthly disposable income in the city: £5,961 (3,974 IBU).

“You can’t save to buy an expensive house because your current rent is expensive too,” grumbled Christophe (surname withheld), 30, an office worker from the 6th arrondissement. Christophe admits that he had to move in with roommates in a flat in Maurepas to split housing costs. “I couldn’t believe that I would still be having roommates at age thirty.”

Rapidly-gentrifying parts of the city are seeing sky-high rents. In the neighbouring borough of Porte-des-Pouilles, the median rent for a one-bedroom flat is £4,950. “I’m not stupid enough to spend money on that,” commented Valentin, 28, Christophe’s roommate who just recently moved in.

BLEH blames the same factors: decrease in supply and increase in demand. Mr. De Buttinière, the Saintes alderman, admitted in an interview that “the refugee influx from Predice shot up demand because previously unoccupied units were taken for the refugees… and we ended up with fewer units available on the rental market. Less supply means higher prices even if the outstanding demand remains the same.” Saintes was able to cushion the impact by outsourcing its allotment of refugees to neighbouring Cenise and Saine-et-Loine. De Buttinière: “If we hadn’t done that, rent prices in this city would be more expensive than it is now.”

The impact of the refugee influx was estimated by BLEH to have added about 0.07 to 0.12 points to the nationwide RLRD.

That the three southern departments have seen rising rents is evidence of the refugee influx’s impact on housing, said Bouche-du-Rhâne departmental councillor Thierry Vercoutre (Liberal). “The Bouche-du-Rhâne accepted a higher-than-average number of refugees relative to its population. Nyon even had to temporarily allocate nearly-finished public housing units to the refugee children.”

Nyon’s RLRD is actually higher than Saintes’, at 0.644. Neighbouring suburbs are also filled to saturation: Vienne and Cuire have RLRDs of 0.609 and 0.598, respectively. Across southern Saintonge, the cities of Ratisbonne (Lauter), Chalais (Lac), Malines (Argens), and Brive (Basses-Brômes) have higher RLRDs than Saintes. Saintonge’s southern departments, being nearer to Predice, bore a disproportionately higher burden of accepting the refugee influx.


“I moved back to in my parents’ farmhouse out in the backwoods,” related Joost Desaever, 27. Joost used to live and work in central Nyon before skyrocketing rents made him decide to move out in mid-2022. Now he commutes about 45 minutes to get to work. “I don’t know why they had to settle the refugees within the city… the countryside is beautiful and children can play in the nature.”

Nyon Mayor Gauthier-Childéric Knockaert (National) was forced to back down from accepting more refugees to the city in September 2022 after pressure from the aldermen from the Coalition and rebels from the labour faction of the National Party. “The rest of Saintonge should be sharing the burden too,” said alderwoman Béthilde-Marie Berhaut (National) during the proceedings. Berhaut and her faction joined the Coalition in blocking further reallocation of refugees to Nyon. The Nyon City Council passed an ordinance establishing a moratorium on accepting new refugees until several conditions were met: notably, a decrease in rent prices in the city to predetermined levels and an increase of available housing stock to the targets set by the council. The resolution was of little effect: neither did rent decrease nor housing stock increase; and the refugee influx has largely ceased by September 2022.

Homelessness
The unavailability of housing and skyrocketing rents brought forth an unfamiliar problem in Saintonge: homelessness. Saintonge has a right to shelter in its laws, which means that unhoused individuals must be provided some form of housing, even if temporary.


“Our main shelters are full,” declared Sabine-Marie Langlois, chief of the Housing unit of Saintes’ Social Services Department. “We try to organise makeshift shelters when needed.”

Homeless encampments had sprung up in some Santonian cities, such as Saintes, Nyon, Ratisbonne, and Côme. But unlike in some other countries, Santonian homeless encampments are organised, have amenities, and are run by social services in accordance to Saintonge’s right-to-shelter provisions.

One such ‘tent city’ was put up at a section of the Macquais Nature Preserve in northwestern Saintes. “Is this even my country?” blurted out a man in his fifties, who declined to be named. “Refugees get houses and I, a citizen of this country, am staying in a tent?”

Even inhabitants of nearby districts complained. Last April, residents of the nearby 11th arrondissement borough of Montmacq sent a petition to the Saintes City Council to relocate the inhabitants ‘to more suitable accommodations.’

Ms Langlois assured that the people in the ‘makeshift shelters’ will get better accommodation soon. “It’s just that there’s a long waiting list. Organised places to stay are much better than sleeping rough on the street.”

Knock-on effects
The high rent prices have further knock-on effects on the Santonian economy. The high cost of housing is pushing Saintonge’s inflation past the low target set by the Royal Bank of Saintonge (Banque royale de Saintonge, BRS), the country’s central bank. The BRS increasing interest rates may help tamp down on inflation, but this will also increase mortgage rates – making buying a house even more unaffordable.

Consumer spending is also decreasing as an ever-larger share of household income is being spent on housing instead of on other goods.

Rent control
The idea of rent control is becoming even more appealing as rent prices skyrocket. The city councils of Saintes and Nyon are mulling temporary rent-control ordinances despite a large proportion of Santonian housing already being rent-controlled. The 1948 Loi Chassard states that dwellings built with public money, such as housing estates and subsidised housing developments, will be rent-controlled if they are being let out – even if these dwellings are now owned by private entities. 30% of Saintonge’s total housing stock are covered by these “Chassard rents”; the proportion is even higher – 61% - when counting only rental units.


The implementation of the Rossignol Agreement disproportionately utilised the housing with Chassard rents as they were cheaper. This pushed the rest of the renters to the private market, where rents are much higher. At the time of the BLEH survey, 96% of Saintonge’s available rental units are non-Chassard units. This contributed to the large increase in RLRD.

Despite this, the Coalition strongly opposes rent controls. Former Saintes Mayor Mauconduit said that “… experience has shown that total rent controls are counterproductive because by manipulating the price, it leads to reduction of housing supply. It will make problems even worse than before.”

Côme Mayor Joseph-Maxence Dandrieux (Liberal) also nixed a rent-control measure in the city. “The government may control rents in the housing it builds, but not in privately-built ones. It will both constrain supply by disincentivising developers from building rental dwellings and will lead to a reduction of quality of the housing stock. There is already a quality disparity between your typical Chassard rent unit and your typical non-Chassard rent unit.”

On the other end, there is also a pending bill before the Santonian National Assembly authored by Jean-Quentin Hamel (Saintes-3) introducing total rent controls throughout Saintonge. “This is intended to tame the runaway increase in rent prices that only benefits and enriches the landlords,” said Hamel. In addition, his proposal imposes the Windfall Tax on income from rents. The Hamel bill is still pending before the Subcommittee on Housing and Human Settlements.

Future
Despite the gloomy current statistics, BLEH sounded an optimistic note at the end of its report. BLEH states that given that the Predice – New Aleman War is winding down, the Predicean refugee children are going to return home. This is expected to ease the pressure on the Santonian housing market as dwellings are going to be vacated and made available.

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
25 July 2023 - 1055h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Anne-Marcelline de Saint-Corentin in Saintes
12 April 2024 - 1203h

SAINTES – at 10:00 AM this morning, the Royal Palace announced that King Thibault II of Saintonge had died. The Royal Heralds announced the death simultaneously at a hastily-convened joint session of the Parliament of Saintonge and at an intended Royal Audience.


Death
According to the announcement, King Thibault II of Saintonge died at 7:30 AM this morning. He was forty-four years of age. The cause of death has not yet been released.

The death of Saintonge’s king was unexpected, as King Thibault II had no publicly-known chronic illness. The Royal Palace did say that further details are to follow.

Reign
King Thibault II of Saintonge succeeded from his father, King Timothée II of Saintonge, in 2006, at age twenty-six. He had reigned over the country for eighteen years, through four prime ministers and four parliaments. His reign was marked by the years-long refugee crisis and massive increase in immigration, Saintonge winning two World Cups, and accession to the Meterra Economic Treaty Organisation (META).

Succession
Saintonge has a convention known as le mort saisit le vif – meaning that the transfer of sovereignty occurs instantaneously upon the moment of death of the previous monarch. Under this convention, there is no need for a coronation or even recognition by Parliament for the next monarch to accede to the throne, as long as there is an established, recognised, and legal heir. There is no interregnum period in Saintonge.

Saintonge’s new monarchs are twin Princes Thibault-Maximilian and Timothée-Brice, who will ascend to the throne as Co-Kings Thibault III and Timothée III of Saintonge in accordance with the Loi de Succession 2020 passed by the Santonian Parliament last November 2020. Under the 2020 Succession Law, the twin princes, now twin co-kings, are co-equal monarchs of Saintonge. One co-king will be able to execute the ceremonial functions of the office on behalf of the other and the entire office.

Reaction
Speaker of the National Assembly Sophie-Anne Laliberté and Presider of the House of Lords Duke Timothée III of Aunis immediately convened an emergency joint session of the Parliament of Saintonge after being briefed of the monarch’s death. According to Prime Minister Matthieu-Gauvain Lamblin, the Royal Council was briefed within an hour of the monarch’s death. The Royal Council is a ceremonial council consisting of Saintonge’s highest officials: the monarch, the heir apparent, the Speaker of the National Assembly, the Prime Minister, the leader of the Loyal Opposition, the Presider of the House of Lords, the leaders of the three estates in the House of Lords, the Chief Justices of the three highest courts (Court of Cassation, Council of State, Constitutional Court), and the Pope of the Santonian National Church.

In the joint session of the Parliament of Saintonge, Parliament acclaimed Thibault III and Timothée III as co-Kings of Saintonge, also by convention. While this has no legal force given the le mort saisit le vif convention, it is a ceremonial gesture of proclamation and recognition of their monarch by the representatives of the Santonian people – transforming the royal title from Roi de Saintonge (“King of Saintonge”) to Roi des Saintongeaises (“King of the Santonians”).

Prime Minister Lamblin, in his speech to the joint assembly, ordered seven days of mourning, with Santonian flags to be flown at half-mast throughout the mourning period. All political parties announced the suspension of their electoral campaigns during the seven-day mourning period. The first leader’s debate scheduled for April 15 has also been postponed.

Duke Timothée III of Aunis, from a cadet branch of the Santonian Royal Family, announced that the Royal Family had decided to defer the coronation of the twin Kings until after the May 25 Santonian general elections.

Consequences
The death of King Thibault II could not have come at an even more inopportune time, with a super-election coming in six weeks. The reserve powers of the monarch also play a role in the formation of the government, and an unexpected succession period overlapping with an election season could be a source of uncertainty for the country.

The uncertainties were expressed by multiple deputies and representatives in the joint session. Speaker Laliberté sought to assuage the concerns: “Just to be clear, Saintonge isn’t headless. Our royal succession is automatic. We have a caretaker government.”

The Chiefs Justices of Saintonge’s three highest courts also issued a joint letter, stating that “Saintonge maintains its continuity of government. Saintonge still has a monarch and a government. All actions that had happened this morning are legal under constitutional conventions and laws of the country.”

This story will be updated when developments occur.

translated by Thibault-Luke Burlbaugh
12 April 2024 - 1228h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Culture > Entertainment


by Jules-Fernand de Maupeou in Saintes
07 October 2024 - 1128h
BÉTHANIE (Rance) – Lancou, Petit Royaume, Alwena la Cheftaine. There are just three television series that took Santonian television by storm. Lancou, a story about a crime-solving psychopomp from Bethanian mythology, is now on in its fifth season and is driving views on web streaming platform Interflix. Petit Royaume, renewed for a second season, is a historical fiction about the petty kingdoms of Bethany and Domnonée. Another historical drama (but laden with fantasy), Alwena la Cheftaine is about the struggles of a woman who becomes the chieftain of the Veneti tribe, a member of the Bethonic Confederation in pre-Umbrial Saintonge. All three television series, popularly-called “B-Dramas” (short for “Bethanian dramas”), had seen success in Saintonge and beyond. What made B-Dramas popular?

Saintonge had been a regular and prolific producer of cultural and entertainment programmes, which is a driving force on its soft power. Saintes is the centre of the Santonian entertainment industry. However, in the recent years, northwestern Saintonge, popularly called Bethany (although in reality it is composed of two provinces: Bethany and Domnonée), had entered popular culture.

Bethany and Saintonge
“Bethany and Bethanians always had an outsized impact on Saintonge culture,” said Prof. Gaël Le Diffon, a professor of Bethanian studies at the University of Béthanie. “Bethany’s proximity to Saintes, the Santones’ tribe’s Bethanian roots, and its distinctiveness vis-à-vis Saintonge whilst maintaining a close bond with the country… all of these factors meant that Bethanians had been influencing Santonian culture. Today is no different, but its influence is amplified by even more factors: its distinctiveness, the presence of its own media outfits, and Interflix.”

According to Prof. Le Diffon, Bethany being able to maintain its language was crucial for its distinctiveness. “Of the peoples in what made Saintonge, only Bethany and Bavière managed to save, maintain, and develop their languages – the rest assimilated into the so-called Santonian mainstream.”

Bethanian language
Bethanian is a Galtic language that is only distantly related to Santonian and is not intelligible to Santonians. 75% of people in the traditionally Bethanian-speaking language area, or 5.5 million people, know Bethanian.

“Bethanians protect their language fiercely,” said Prof. Le Diffon. “It was one of the privileges that the ancient provinces of Bethany and Domnonée had retained, as a reward for being longstanding loyal allies to Saintonge.”

The centralising tendencies of the Santonian Revolution barely made a dent on Bethany’s fierce defence of their culture and language. “Bavière’s duke sided with the Pope-King, hence Bavière got some privileges retained… and it was the Duke of Bavière that embodied the province’s privileges. In Bethany and Domnonée, it was the people that rallied to the Pope-King.”

It is also possible that Pope-King Thibault I, who used to be the Archbishop of Vantes in the Domnonée and was fluent in Bethanian, had some sympathy with the flock he used to lead.

Just like in the Revolution, in Bavière, it was the Duke of Bavière that took the mantle of protector of Bavarois culture. In Bethany, it was the people who had to act. In 1794, the Estates of Domnonée and Bethany issued a joint request to the Estates-General of Saintonge to “honour, protect, and respect the language and culture of the Bethanian people.” In 1798 at the behest Pope-King Thibault I, the Santonian Parliament passed a law creating the Royal Council of Bethany (Conseil royale de Béthagne, Kuzul roueel bethoneg) – an intergovernmental organisation composed of the seven Bethanian-speaking northwestern departments of the Aulne, the Authie, the Avaloirs, the Boëme, the Côtes-du-Nord, the Rance, and the Sée. It was only concerned with cultural issues; it had no political power. Because it is a royal institution, it derives part of its funding from the Royal Trust as the monarch of Saintonge is the permanent patron. No other ancient Santonian province was given such privileges. The departments covering the ancient provinces of the Pouilles and Bavière – both loyal to the Revolution – was allowed to set up their own councils, but under ducal patronage instead.

Even when the intendancies of Avranches and Brissarthe were transferred to the department of the Cenise in 1900, these two areas maintained representation in the Royal Council of Bethany.

Bethanian institutions
The Royal Council of Bethany promoted and protected Bethanian culture in the seven departments. One of their main organs is the Office of the Bethanian Language (Office de la langue béthonne/Ofis ar bethoneg), which standardises, innovates, and adapts the Bethanian language, including its official dictionary.

Two other important organs of the Royal Council of Bethany are two sister media outfits: its radio network, Skingomz bethoneg (Radio béthonne); and its television network, Skinwel bethoneg (Télévision béthonne), which holds the regional television channel franchise in the seven departments. Lovingly called Ar Skinwel (“Our Television”) by Bethanians, it is the main source of Bethanian-language programming. Skinwel bethoneg’s charter requires it to exclusively broadcast in Bethanian – merely subtitling Santonian-language programmes is not allowed. In contrast, the other localist channels such as the Saintonge Télévisions (STV) franchises in Vantes, Béthanie, and Redon, broadcast only partly in Bethanian.

Thus, Skinwel bethoneg had to create radio and television programmes of its own, leading to a wealth of talent and experience in Bethany. Several prominent Santonian actors such as Gabriel-Gaël Guermeur, Timothée de Saint-Ogan, and Gustave-Émile Faulcon du Couëdic had their start in Bethanian television.

Interflix
With fertile creative ground in Bethany, the company Interflix capitalised on local talent to expand and upscale the entertainment industry in the province. Probably the most famous Bethanian company today, Interflix started as a chain of family-owned video-rental stores in the province. Interflix made the jump to subscription video-on-demand streaming just as home-video sales and rental industry was dying and the internet was booming. Initially, Interflix acquired rights to shows and serials. Its most prolific and earliest partner was Skinwel bethoneg, which welcomed the income from streaming its productions on Interflix. Interflix had to subtitle the shows from Skinwel bethoneg to make it accessible to the Santonian and international audiences. With the added income, the quality and quantity of Skinwel’s output increased, leading to productions such as Lancou, Alwena la Cheftaine, and Grâce Salvatrice. This primed B-Drama for popularity throughout the country. On Interflix’s side, the company learned that the returns from one production could be increased by expanding its availability to other audiences – there was no need to re-create the same content in multiple languages, subtitling (the preferred method) or dubbing will suffice.

Interflix also took off and became a multibillion-livre business. It too, started efforts into original content development starting in the 2010s, forming subsidiary production companies to make content. Interflix did not forget its roots and its most enthusiastic supporters in Bethany: it created HunvreGweled and Gwalarn for producing Bethanian-language content. The wholly Interflix-owned HunvreGweled’s productions include Rouantelezh Vihan (« Petit Royaume »), and Lev er mor (« Lieues en mer »). Gwalarn, being a joint company with Skinwel bethoneg, makes more eclectic content, from dramas such as Peñse (« Naufrage »), quiz shows such as Splannañ (« Plus intelligent »), and documentaries such as Bethoneizh don (« La Béthagne profonde »).

Even STV started tapping HunvreGweled and Gwalarn to make productions. Currently in Bethany, there are three major production studios: HunvreGweled, Gwalarn, and Skinwel bethoneg’s in-house production studio. Skinwel and Interflix are very much intertwined that within Bethany, it is not unusual to see Skinwel’s shows in Interflix and vice-versa. This symbiotic relationship extends outside Bethany: Interflix promotes Bethanian-language content from all three studios on its platforms and makes it accessible to the wider world.

“Whereas previously, Bethanian-language content was consumed only by Bethanians themselves, now everyone could see and enjoy it,” commented Prof. Le Diffon. “It used to be that people only get to see Bethanian-language content when STV picks it up for national distribution… and oftentimes it is dubbed into Santonian. The Interflix platform liberated Bethanian media from the confines of its home province to the world.”

Interflix itself is an unabashed promoter of its home province. “Interflix is a family-owned company. Interflix is a Bethanian company. Interflix is a Santonian company. We are proud to represent our roots and who we are,” said Interflix CEO Kaëlig-Anne Lahellec in a 2024 interview.

“We want to cater to diverse audiences throughout the world,” commented Marc-Mechell Kegelin, director of programming for Interflix, in 2024. “We also want to have diverse offerings throughout the world. Not a lot of people have heard of Bethany. To them it’s exciting, and interesting. It’s a peek on the place, culture, and environment that Interflix was nurtured in.”

Another effect was that Bethany is now rivalling nearby Saintes as the centre of Santonian cinema. The northwestern coast stretching from Saintes to St-Océan, Redon, St-Nazaire, and Béthanie is now being dubbed the Côte du Cinéma (“Movie Coast”) for its concentration of production studios and associated industries.

Saintonge, through Interflix, is also exporting its knowledge abroad. In its pursuit of diverse content, Interflix is establishing local production outfits in countries where it has significant markets: Estudis Estrella in Dhahara, Diakron Productions in Prydania, Interflix Studios Vigan in Andrenne, Interflix Studios – Zamami in Seinoku, and Blue Star Productions in Skanda. This enables it to make content catering to the local market and at the same time, diversify its offerings throughout the Interflix network. This is because content produced by Interflix production studios is generally made available across the entire network. With the sprouting of these Interflix studios, Santonian and Bethanian expertise are being tapped to enrich these production outfits.

Thus, Interflix amplified the reach of Bethanian media and specifically, “B-Dramas”. “Now, Bethany is a big driving force in Santonian soft power though its cultural output,” said Prof. Le Diffon. “It’s making Bethanians proud.”

translated by Kyle MacTaggart-de Flesselles
08 October 2024 - 0930h