Giorgia Meloni wins the election. What's in her program for culture?

The center-right wins the 2022 parliamentary elections for the renewal of both houses of parliament, which will undergo a cutback from the past due to the 2019 constitutional reform approved in the 2020 referendum: it goes down to 400 deputies and 200 senators (from the 4th to the 18th legislature it had been 630 and 315). The coalition formed by Fratelli d’Italia, Lega, Forza Italia, and Noi Moderati gets 44 percent in the House and 43.8 percent in the Senate when almost all sections have been counted, with Fratelli d’Italia leading the party (exceeding 26 percent in both the House and the Senate, clearly distancing its allies of Lega and Forza Italia both above between 8 and 9 percent in both houses of Parliament). What will happen now to culture? Let’s look in detail at the program of Giorgia Meloni’s party.

On August 11, the party deposited at the Ministry of the Interior, as its own program, the“Framework Program Agreement for a Center-Right Government” entered into together with the other forces of the coalition, which like Fratelli d’Italia deposited at the Viminale the same document, signed before the elections by all the leaders of the four parties. The framework agreement includes an item on Made in Italy, culture and tourism, although many have criticized the vagueness of the points included, which are:

• Enhancing the Beauty of Italy in its image recognized in the world;
• Protection and promotion of Made in Italy, with regard to the typicality of Italian excellence;
• Italians abroad as ambassadors of Italy and Made in Italy, promotion of our excellence and culture through Italian communities around the world;
• Establishment of business networks in the tourism sector, for the promotion and marketing of the sector, including at the international level. Support for the entertainment sector and incentives for the organization of events at the national level;
• Support for Italy’s presence in the circuits of major international events;
• Protection of boating and seaside businesses: 8000 km of coastline, 300,000 employees in the sector, a heritage that must be protected;
• Protection and promotion of cultural, artistic, archaeological, tangible and intangible heritage, and enhancement of the cultural professions that constitute Italy’s economic and identity driving force;
• Enhancement and promotion of a diversified tourism offer;
• Support for the digitization of the entire tourism and culture sector supply chain;
• Combating the abusive exercise of tourism and culture professions and activities.

However, last September 10, Fratelli d’Italia presented its own, much more detailed program (40 pages), in which culture is also addressed in greater detail and comprehensively: it is therefore possible to get an idea of what the action of the eventual Giorgia Meloni government will be in our sector, also in relation to issues already addressed by previous governments and the priorities of the sector(here an article with the ten priorities for culture according to the director of Finestre sull’Arte, Federico Giannini). The section is titled Culture and Beauty, Our Renaissance, and begins with a programmatic statement, “Italy is known and appreciated in the world as the Nation of Art and Culture, as the Homeland of Beauty. It is our duty to protect and enhance the immense heritage of which we are heirs. Giving support and protection to Italian culture, our artists, our creators of imagination means projecting the new Italian Renaissance into the future.”

What will the actions be in concrete terms? Here they are listed: promotion of Italian culture through the enhancement of cultural, artistic, historical, archaeological, ethno-anthropological, archival and bibliographical heritage, protection of professionals in the cultural sector and of the realities private sector who are involved in the management of public or private assets, introduction of tax deduction for individual cultural consumption, digital innovation for cultural assets, to “make them fully usable also through social and multimedia platforms,” and then again enhancement and expansion of Unesco heritage, “also as a vehicle for tourism promotion,” subsidiarity and new public-private relationship especially to allow the opening of cultural assets now closed to the public.

The program then provides for the reform of the Single Fund for Performing Arts (Fus) (although it is not specified in what terms) and the simplification of the bureaucracy related to public funding, and then continues with the protection of the Italian audiovisual industry and development projects for the creative digital one, the revitalization of the Italian artistic ecosystem also through the organization of festivals abroad, the redevelopment of suburbs and villages also through street art and the enhancement of the heritage preserved in warehouses and museums and currently not usable. Fratelli d’Italia then promises to give new centrality to the music industry and the world of entertainment, theater and dance and to ensure the protection of historic homes.

Up to this point, these are actions that, for the most part, have also characterized the actions of previous governments (e.g., digitization, attention to boroughs and suburbs, and the importance accorded to Fus), but the program also includes points that could be described as “identity” for the right-wing formation: they are the “creation of a new Italian imaginary” also by promoting, particularly in schools, the history of Italy’s greats and historical re-enactments, the enhancement of the Jubilee 2025 and Rome Capital of Christendom, the contrast to cancel culture considered a threat to “the symbols of our identity,” the “promotion of small municipalities and deep Italy rich in excellence.” Finally, the last point, the reintroduction of the 2 per thousand for Third Sector entities involved in culture.

An entire section is also devoted to tourism. In this area the program includes: enhancement and promotion of a diversified tourism offer; giving birth to an “innovative campaign to promote more Italian beauty in the world, supporting Italy’s presence in the circuits of major international events”; creating coordination between regional promotions and the promotion of Italy abroad; protection of boating and seaside businesses (“8 thousand kilometers of coastline and 300 thousand employees in the sector are a heritage that must be defended from any form of unfair expropriation,” the program states); support for mountain tourism; support for the digitization of the entire tourism and culture sector; crush the phenomenon of accommodation abuse through clear regulations; complete the reform of tourism professions; update the Tourism Code; combating degradation and breaking down architectural and sensory barriers that limit and de-qualify tourism offerings; introducing a reward mechanism for tourism businesses that invest in accessibility and family services; overcoming the seasonality of tourism employment by reducing the cost of labor in longer contracts long, in order to guarantee the worker a year-round income; investing in the sustainability and digitalization of the sector; refinancing the tax credit aimed at upgrading and purchasing the structure of which one is a tenant; supporting the supply chain to combat high bills; investing in large events and at the same time widely promoting small local events.

Finally, also rich is the chapter devoted to landscape and environment, issues closely related to culture. In this area, Giorgia Meloni’s party aims to update and operationalize the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change; combat drought and pollution of our waters and, at the same time, clean up rivers and lakes; save the sea and the coastline, protecting them fromcoastal erosion, reclaiming coasts and seabeds from garbage and ecomonsters; realizing the goals of the environmental and ecological transition of the NRP by safeguarding the production system affected by years of crisis, with particular attention to industrial sectors that are difficult to reconvert (e.g., theautomotive); playing an active and proactive role in the coming months in Europe during the negotiations of the Fit for 55 package, with the aim of defending and protecting the interests of the national industrial and production system; planting trees to create “green belts” in cities and promoting the creation, or renovation, of gardens, urban gardens, parks, forests and nature reserves to be given to associations for management and adoption by schools. Also in the program is the nasprimento of penalties, including fines, for arsonists, the strengthening of public transportation and sustainable mobility, and incentives for energy efficiency in residential and commercial properties.

Still regarding environment and landscape, Fratelli d’Italia also proposes to promote in Europe the policy of “civilization duties” against “products from non-EU states that do not meet our standards of environmental protection.” And then again: protection of the landscape and land from neglect, abandonment and seismic and hydrogeological risks; closing the waste cycle and introducing the principle that “the more you differentiate, the less you pay”; progressive replacement of polluting products with biodegradable ones; and promotion of forms of recycling-reuse, such as the returnable vacuum. Finally, actions to protect animals are envisaged: toughening penalties for crimes against animals; training and information campaigns on their respect; stopping the illegal trafficking of puppies from Eastern Europe; recognition of the social and therapeutic role of pets; and protection of species and biodiversity.

Giorgia Meloni wins the election. What's in her program for culture?

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