It's a seemingly insignificant detail in a broader austerity plan, but one that's already provoking reactions within the graphics industry. According to information revealed by BFMTV and confirmed by TF1-LCI, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has instructed all ministries to stop sending paper greetings cards for the year 2026. The instruction, sent by email in early December, is intended to reduce public spending, particularly in the field of institutional communication.
As part of an overall six-billion-euro reduction in government operating expenses, the head of government intends to cut the budgets allocated to state communications by 300 million euros, currently estimated at one billion euros.
Every year, " several thousand greeting cards" are sent by ministries to members of parliament, local elected representatives, partner institutions and journalists, according to an adviser quoted by BFMTV .
"A greeting card is not an incidental expense"
This decision has not gone unnoticed by paper and printing professionals. The French group Editor, based in Mâcon in the Saône-et-Loire region and specializing in cards and gift packaging, sees this decision as more far-reaching than it seems.
In a public response posted on social networks, the designer and manufacturer points out that "a greeting card is not an incidental expense, but a gesture of consideration and connection" .
Editor reminds : "The greeting card is not a gadget. It's time taken to write, an object that we like to give and keep. A paper card creates a real moment of emotion where a message disappears from people's minds in a few seconds."
For him, the Prime Minister's decision is significant: "This is a strong signal. That of a country giving up on a simple, concrete gesture that materializes the consideration shown to everyone."
170,000 greeting cards donated by Editor to the Lecornu government
To help out a government that's clearly running out of stamps, Editor is offering 5,000 greeting cards to each of the 34 French ministries, for a total of 170,000 copies. The cards would be produced entirely in their Saône-et-Loire factory.
With this gesture, the group, which prints several million cards a year for both private and business customers, underlines not only the symbolic gesture of sending a traditional letter, but also the economic implications that the government seems to have forgotten: supporting local employment, promoting the paper industry and maintaining know-how.
"Making the greetings card the scapegoat for excessive government deficits doesn't seem right to us
neither reasonable nor credible" adds Henry Condamine, President of the Editor Group.
At a time when paper is struggling to defend its place in everyday use, this ban exacerbates the perception of a medium that is sometimes considered obsolete, despite its recognized effectiveness, at various levels, in communication.
