The finance bill for 2026 plans to reduce by 16 million euros the fund financially supporting the more than 750 community radio stations in France. At Aligre FM, after more than 45 years of existence, we do not hide our concern.
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The 2026 finance bill poses a serious threat to more than 750 community radio stations listed in France, according to thee National Union of Free Radios, which speaks of “budgetary cataclysm” and estimates that nearly 2,400 jobs are at risk. The 2026 draft budget provides for a drastic cut in subsidies, with a reduction of 16 million euros for the Radio Expression Support Fund.
In the 5th arrondissement of Paris, we find the small premises of Aligre FM, heir to free radios, created in 1981. “It is a general radio station without advertising which gives a very important place to culture in all its forms. A key to deciphering the complexity of the world that is going”describe Nadia Ettayeb Vannini, director of Aligre FM since 2017, but present on the radio for 20 years and host of a literary program.
“Aligre FM, like many community radio stations, devotes a huge number of hours to media education, to the training of trainee journalists, to the training of technicians from audiovisual schools for example, and this, with very few resources”would like to remind Nadia Ettayeb. Because at Aligre FM there are no employees, or rather, there are no more. “Because we no longer have the means to pay them. Unfortunately, we only operate today with around forty volunteers”underlines the director.
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Francis, for his part, hosts “L’Espagne dans la ville”, a show which presents itself as “a relay for associations”. Francis is categorical, the 750 community radio stations in France “are all useful”. “They play a fundamental social role. They also have local roots. You go to the depths of the Lot, you have an associative radio station which works and which is listened to, so it is very important that these subsidies are maintained”defends Francis. “It’s fundamental”he says.
So faced with the news of what the finance bill provides with the reduction in the radio support fund, Nadia Ettayeb clearly shows her concern. “Today we only have the FSER. This year we received €31,500. That’s our entire budget right now.”
In its history, Aligre FM also formed a controversial partnership, in 2019, with the Russian state radio Sputnik, banned by the European Union since the invasion in Ukraine. “Aligre FM has no connection with Putin’s Russia, today defends Nadia Ettayeb, the CSA at the time knew that we were granting an antenna dropout. In no case was it an ideological partnership. We had just lost a partner who represented €40,000 in the radio’s operating budget.”
“It also proves how necessary the subsidies are that allow community radio stations to carry out their mission in complete independence and in the general interest.”
Nadia Ettayeb Vanniniat franceinfo
At the time, there was a need to find lost money and Sputnik showed up. “We accepted. Which was a mistake. It was a partnership by default that helped save the radio station.”summarizes the director. At the time, the founder of the radio, Philippe Vannier declared that this partnership was “an ethical offense” but spoke of a “question of financial survival”.
But there is no question of sticking to this black stain in the history of Aligre FM. “This unfortunate partnership should not be the tree that hides the immense forest of everything that radio has accomplished over the past 45 years“, argues Nadia Ettayeb, recalling the slogan of the radio on frequency 93.1 since 1981: “Aligre FM, free and independent”.
