Alliance Française finding new head for Macau delegation

Xavier Garnier

Alliance Française de Macao (AF) has been searching for the successor to its current director, Xavier Garnier, after he disclosed to the association several months aglo that he is planning to move back to France in July.

AF has held interviews with 35 candidates who applied for the position and 11 applicants went through to a second interview.

According to Garnier, the association’s Board is currently choosing between three final contendors to be his successor.

Speaking to the Times, the AF director explained that he lived and worked in China for more than 15 years; before coming to Macau working in the regions of Shandong and Jinan.

He also stressed that his plans to leave Macau are based purely on “personal and family” reasons.

“The main reason why I’m leaving has nothing to do with Macau. I could have stayed even longer. But it’s really for personal reasons,” he reiterated.

“And I just feel it’s time for me to go back to France with my family because I’ve been here already for quite a long time,” he continued.

Garnier has been living in Macau for nearly four years and has been the director of AF for three years.

One of the highlights during his term was the establishment of the Sacred Music Festival which aims to “both to valorize the heritage of Macau” by enlivening some of its monuments, namely churches, with musical concerts, and to “cooperate with local artists.” The festival features a baroque music concert.

Another project that the association worked on was the French Film Festival, which features film screenings and master classes with French directors.

Last year, the festival was held at the Macau Science and Technology University and presented three French films, along with master classes.

“We did contribute a lot in the cultural life of Macau. […] We are quite active in terms of cultural events,” Garnier concluded, citing some of the 15 events they held annually.

Commenting on Sunday’s French presidential election, the AF director revealed that only less than half of the registered voters went to vote at the Macau polling station.

In the tally of the voting this past Sunday in Macau, Emmanuel Macron got 42 votes and his opponent Marine Le Pen 17; there were six blank votes and 1 null. 

“Totally, we have 138 registered voters so were expecting that maybe we could have 60 percent of them vote, [but] it’s a little less. Yet the French people who came here to vote were very happy as they do not need to go to Hong Kong,” he said.

Garnier addressed the French citizens residing in the region who did not participate in the polls, saying, “What happened in Macau also happened in France,” adding that some 25 percent of the registered voters in France did not vote due to dissatisfaction over the presidential candidates.

“The last edition in which such a big number of people who didn’t vote was in 1969. […] A lot of people decided not to vote because they were not satisfied with these two choices between Macron and Le Pen,” he explained.

Commenting on the organization of the first polling station that has been set up in Macau for the French Presidential Election, Garnier said that accommodating 66 registered voters was “not a big problem,” compared to the number of voters in Hong Kong and Guangzhou.

“Everything went okay, especially there were enough people to organize,” he said.

The Macau polling station, located at the headquarters of the AF was initially promoted by the French Consul General for Hong Kong and Macau, Eric Berti.