Gianluca Vacca (M5S): in six months we have already done a lot for culture. People's maneuver also for culture

In a lengthy post on the Star Blog, the official organ of the 5-Star Movement, Undersecretary for Cultural Heritage Gianluca Vacca vindicates what the Pentaleghist government has done in six months on culture and announces that the 2019 budget law will be “a people’s maneuver for culture as well.”“Investing in culture is not only right, it is necessary,” Vacca wrote. “The question, however, is how to invest, since the available resources are not unlimited and money cannot be spent in a haphazard manner but must be put starting where there is the greatest need, thus giving priority to human resources, structural needs, young people, the weaker social classes and the sectors most in need.”

There is no shortage of barbs at the previous government: “in this sense, one of the priorities identified at Mibac was to intervene to fill the enormous staffing gaps inherited from those who preceded us. For a very simple reason: without staff it is impossible to ensure the necessary protection of our immense heritage; without staff it is impossible to enhance, as they deserve, our art treasures; without staff, museums and sites are inevitably destined to close.” Vacca then relaunches the intention to hire thousands of new units among the ranks of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage: “We have launched a major recruitment plan aimed not only at supplementing the staff destined to gradually empty as a result of retirements, something that past governments did not even think about, but also at injecting new resources, to strengthen territorial structures. A plan that will bring about 4,000 new hires by 2021, 1,000 of them extra turnover.”

Vacca then claims the confirmation of the culture bonus for 2019, albeit with the correctives that will modify it on the basis of Isee, with further stral against the PD: “Renzi had wanted the bonus as a purely propagandistic measure, and in fact he cared about it so much that the last PD government even forgot to make a primary rule that extended the bonus to 2018, with inevitable rejection by the Council of State. If we had not intervened, the money would have been lost. So we saved the bonus for those born in 2000 and extended it to those born in 2001 as well, but planned to give priority for 2019 to the economically weaker groups, because there is nothing more unfair than making equal parts among unequals.” And he also confirms the ideal basis from which the restructuring of the culture bonus stems: “the child of a well-off family certainly has less need of the bonus than the child of an unemployed person, so 2001-born children will receive the 500 euros based on family income and not to everyone indiscriminately. We adhered to an elementary and sacrosanct principle of social equity, as it should be.”

Still, Vacca announces that the 40 million euros resulting from the unused bonus by those eligible will go to support other areas of culture “that need it most or where the funding has a high strategic value, for the revitalization of territories or realities in difficulty or, as in the case of digitization, for the boost offered to innovation.” In more detail, “ the 40 million recovered will be distributed as follows: 8 million more to Fus, Fondo unico per lo spettacolo; 2 million for cultural activities in Abruzzo, Lazio, Marche, and Umbria, i.e., the regions affected by the 2016 earthquake; 12.5 million to support lyric-symphonic foundations; 1 million to support the sector of festivals, choirs, and bands; 3.5 million for the enhancement and promotion of the cultural heritage of the applied arts, particularly fashion, design, and graphics; 2 million for interventions for the redevelopment and recovery of urban suburbs; 4 million for the digitization of cultural heritage; 2 million for cultural and performing arts initiatives in Matera, designated European Capital of Culture in 2019; 1 million for cultural initiatives in L’Aquila and the areas affected by the 2009 earthquake, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the earthquake; and 4 million for the cinema and audiovisual sector.”

Vacca then emphasizes the design of a measure against online scalping: “We have also introduced a sacrosanct norm to stop so-called secondary ticketing, that is, the sort of odious online scalping operated on the most popular events by big buyers, who manage to secure large packages of tickets and then resell them at a higher, often shamefully increased, price. Anyone who has tried to buy concert tickets for a famous singer or band knows what this is all about. With the amendment presented by MoVimento 5 Stelle MP Sergio Battelli, we decided to introduce nominal tickets - that is, with a name and surname requirement - for events in facilities with a capacity of more than 5,000 spectators, while still excluding opera, ballet, symphonic, chamber, jazz, prose, dance, and contemporary circus performances, which should be supported instead, and excluding sports events.” Finally, Vacca recalls the adoption of the plan for the safety of employees and visitors (“unprecedented in the history of the Mibac, with an allocation of no less than 109 million euros”), and the measures for museums (increase of free days and €2 ticket for 18-25 year olds).

Finally, the undersecretary concludes by saying that, in six months, the government has “already done a lot, identifying precise priorities on which to intervene.” “But we are only at the beginning,” Vacca points out. “We will continue to work to increasingly recognize culture the role it is due, to fully implement Article 9 of the Constitution.”

Pictured: Gianluca Vacca

Gianluca Vacca (M5S): in six months we have already done a lot for culture. People's maneuver also for culture

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