Brazil, decree suspends funding for culture in states with anti-Covid restrictions

Last March 4, the Brazilian government led by President Jair Bolsonaro, head of state as well as head of government, approved a singular decree, signed by the national secretary for the promotion of culture, André Porciuncula Alay Esteves, which effectively denies public economic support to cultural institutions located in federal states where anti-Covid restrictions are in effect. The decree states that “given the various measures restricting mobility and economic activities, decreed by the federal states or municipalities, cultural proposals that involve interaction in the presence of the public, and whose location is not in a federal state where there are restrictions on circulation, curfews, lockdowns or other actions that prevent the execution of the project, will be analyzed and published in the Official Gazette.” The measure takes effect for fifteen days, a time, however, that can be extended depending on how long the closures are maintained.

Esteves specified in a note that the decree intends to “rationalize projects that have real possibilities of implementation,” and that it is intended to be a measure “that aims to ensure efficiency and fairness in the allocation of public resources, considering that there is no justification for allocating public funds to projects that cannot be implemented at the moment.” The action, however, is seen by others as a kind of retaliation by Bolsonaro against those states that disapprove of his overly lax policies on contagion prevention: indeed, the Brazilian president has often shown himself averse to physical distancing rules, masks and other anti-Covid measures.

Initiatives have therefore arisen to try to correct the decree: one of them bears the signature of opposition MP Jandira Feghali, who on March 5 had a draft legislative decree registered to call for the suspension of the measure. In the text, while acknowledging the importance of the Aldir Blanc Law (a measure to support cultural institutions affected by the pandemic), Feghali sees the Bolsonaro government’s decree as a measure that “incentivizes activities in the presence at a serious time of the pandemic and denies analyzing those that could be carried out in safe forms giving benefits to the sector and society.” According to Feghali, the decree is “contrary to the public interest in the basic norms of pandemic management.” Imposing the decree’s criteria for the analysis of projects seeking access to public funding means, according to Feghali, “disregarding the needs of the sector and the importance of isolation measures to preserve the lives of Brazilians and Brazilian women.”

“It is,” Feghali argues, “a blatant retaliation against state and municipal governments that stand on the side of science and life, as well as an incentive for increased mobility.” The measure, Feghali concludes, “is authoritarian and unjustified” and “attentive to culture, health and the Constitution. This is unacceptable and does not deserve to be spread, which is why I urge or support our parliamentarians to suspend this decree.”

Brazil, decree suspends funding for culture in states with anti-Covid restrictions

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