Acknowledged by the institutions, St Ives' day must become an asset for the Breton society

Since 2004, the Breton Party has reminded every year the importance of St Ives' day, Brittany's national and international holiday celebrated on May 19th. This widely popular holiday has been celebrated for decades by the Breton diaspora, and in Brittany as well, most especially over the past 15 years, on the initiative of people from Nantes. And since, associations have been organising the event in the five Breton departments and abroad, to which around 250 firms are associated.

Mr Jean-Yves Le Drian, President of administrative Brittany, announced in his speech for 2009 that he wished to give St Ives' day a "particular importance" over the coming 5 years, "so that, progressively, the Breton people celebrate St Ives' day as the Irish celebrate St Patrick's day", partying, but also showing "(their) capacities of creation and innovation in economic matters". The Breton Party is pleased with this institutional recognition. It has well noted the displayed intentions, and the communication means implemented, and is going to see to it that such an event comes out into a greater national cohesion of our society, as well as a wider cultural and economical visibility for our country internationally. The Breton Party will also see to it that the administrative region of Brittany does not absorb all the cultural associations that have always been in charge of it, and must remain.

Bonus : constructive and immediate proposition to Mr Jean-Yves Le Drian and Mr Patrick Mareschal

A short while ago, the mail executive of La Poste for Western Brittany has had the will to lead Breton towns into using exclusively French names for their place names. Beyond the totally justified general outcry that followed, the Breton Party called to the Breton councillors for a debate on postal service reform. Mr Jean-Yves Le Drian wrote to La Poste's general executive, in Paris.

The administrative region of Brittany and the department of Loire-Atlantique are going to meet in a cooperative commission on Wednesday, January 28th. The Breton Party proposes to Mr Jean-Yves Le Drian and Mr Patrick Mareschal to offer La Poste a partnership around St Ives' day. There are many possibilities: enhancing the event on La Poste's Breton shops by books, CDs, envelopes... A commemorative stamp could even be envisioned in the future. This simple initiative will allow to popularize in a very practical way Brittany's national holiday towards the customers of a general interest service that really needs to improve its image on that point.

For the Breton Party, the president, Gérard Olliéric