• Crisis: the cultural industry loses patience with the government and calls for concrete measures such as in France and Germany

Thirty associations and unions of the performing arts, music, cinema and cultural management have accused this Thursday the Minister of Culture, José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, of "stirring up the spirits" of the industry by ruling out, for the moment, the adoption of specific measures to alleviate the crisis in the sector. The Union of Actors, meanwhile, goes further and proposes a 48-hour "cultural blackout" on April 10 and 11.

The signatories warn him, after his press conference last Tuesday, that "there is still time to lead the defense of Culture" in Europe and Spain and offer their collaboration to work on support measures, together with the Ministries of Finance, Labor and Social Security.

"It was not a matter of telling the public that health comes first, as if we did not agree and that aid to culture is included in the general package for all Spanish companies and workers, the obvious is unnecessary to say" , they point out in a statement released today.

They reproach the minister for his lack of leadership and accuse him of "tightening the spirits of the more than 700,000 people who live in the cultural industries" and of showing them to public opinion as "an unsupportive sector" for proposing unilateral measures.

In this sense, they underline that the world of culture is showing "its maximum solidarity with citizens from the first day of confinement" , in many cases making their works available for free, and insist that the main problem they have for To be able to benefit from the measures approved by the Government is that of the intermittency of the contracts.

"Our sector is specific and we need specific measures that contribute to maintaining the business fabric and artists and technicians, penalized for their intermittency, which makes it impossible for them to benefit from the social measures approved for the rest of the workers," they point out.

The letter is signed by, among others, the Association of Stage Directors, the Theater Authors, the Union of Actors, the Federation of Cinema Exhibitors (FECE), the state federation of theater and dance companies (FAETEDA), the union of lyrical artists, the show technicians association (ARTE), the state circus federation, the association of associated musicians FEMA, classical music festivals, CCOO or UGT.

They also recall that from the performing arts sector they sent the minister a document with 52 labor, fiscal and tax proposals and reiterate their request that they be studied to "give a real and effective response."

Since the health crisis began, the Minister of Culture and Sports has held several rounds of telematic meetings with the main representatives of the different disciplines and cultural activities to take note of their needs and to facilitate their use of the general measures approved by the Government. .

However, in his first appearance before the press last Tuesday, he ruled out the creation of funds or other specific measures for culture, considering that this is a global crisis and that "transversal and inclusive support is the most reasonable thing."

He did not rule out that these sectoral measures, which other European countries such as France or Germany are taking, could be taken later.

48 hours without culture

On the other hand, the Union of Actors and Actresses has proposed "a 48-hour hiatus" on social networks on April 10 and 11 so that culture is not present in protest at the decision of the Ministry of Culture not to adopt specific measures to alleviate the crisis in the sector.

According to this union, the decision supposes "a non-consideration of a sector that is drowning little by little, day by day, and that as the weeks go by, no specific measures are taken for its workers."

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