Free Sundays abolished, Franceschini calls for reconsideration. Martina: less culture for all

The entireopposition is calling on the minister of cultural heritage, Alberto Bonisoli, to rethink the idea of canceling free Sundays, announced yesterday by the minister during a visit to the National Library in Naples.

Dario Franceschini (Pd), creator of free Sundays, asks Bonisoli to reconsider: “Free Sundays are not something that concerns me but a cultural and social fact that has involved about 10 million people from the summer of 2014 to today, hundreds of thousands from south to north each time, most of whom have gone to a museum for the first time in their lives bringing their children or grandchildren, most of whom have experienced the joy of being able to do so without burdening a difficult family budget full of things to sacrifice. The first Sundays of the month have driven the increase in paid visitors, brought citizens closer to the museums in their cities, and convinced municipalities and private individuals to conform to the initiative with their museums. Why stop, Minister Bonisoli? Think again. Things that are right and work have no political color. Don’t make culture and Italians pay for a desire for political discontinuity.”

There were many other reactions to Bonisoli’s words from opposition figures. Maurizio Martina (Pd): “Culture Minister Bonisoli wants to abolish free Sundays at the museum. Only in 2017 3.5 million people visited our heritage for free. They want the beauties of Italy for a few and not as a public good. The slogan is already ready: less culture for everyone.” Flavia Piccoli Nardelli (Pd, chair of the House culture committee in the past legislature): “Why Minister Bonisoli abolish free Sundays at the museum? Culture is a right of citizenship and as such should be guaranteed. Citizens also have the right to enjoy cultural heritage through free Sundays. Bringing citizens closer to culture is virtuous.” Alessia Morani (Pd): “Minister of Culture Bonisoli of the Government of Change for the worse abolishes free Sundays at museums. In fact to feed a people with fake news the popularization of culture is absolutely to be avoided.” Ivan Scalfarotto (Pd): “in a single day: removed tourism from the Ministry of Culture (and assigned to the Ministry of Agriculture) and cancellation of free Sundays at museums. It is enough and enough to understand the idea that this government has of Italy: closed, small, without dreams and without hope.”

Ettore Rosato (Pd): “every time the League goes into government, culture is the first to be cut. From September there will be no more free Sundays at the museum: the minister has decided to abolish them. After all, culture is a hiccup for the Salvini style that leads the government today.” Stefano Bonaccini (Pd): “Dear Minister of Culture abolishing free Sundays at Museums is wrong. Did Undersecretary Borgonzoni, who boasts that she has not read a book in over three years, advise you to do so? Please reconsider.”

Mariastella Gelmini (Forza Italia): “Minister Bonisoli’s idea of abolishing free Sundays at museums from next September is wrong. Culture is a precious and universal good. We would not like the government of the no to Tav, allIlva and big works to also become the government of the no to culture.” Federico Mollicone (Fratelli d’Italia): “It remains incomprehensible to us why the newly appointed minister Bonisoli has so far been continuist with Franceschini on everything from the appointments of executives to the appointment of the curator of the Venice Biennale to the allocation of the Fus but shows discontinuity by abolishing one of the few technically correct initiatives that harms citizens.”

Pictured: Dario Franceschini

Free Sundays abolished, Franceschini calls for reconsideration. Martina: less culture for all

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