Majority wants to eliminate 18app, the 18-year-old culture bonus: amendment in maneuver

A maxi amendment to the budget bill to eliminate the culture bonus for 18-year-olds, the one that guarantees 500 euros every year to young people who turn 18, and which can be used to buy books, museum and concert tickets, theater subscriptions, music, and so on. The amendment was presented by Federico Mollicone (Fratelli d’Italia), Rossano Sasso (Lega) and Rita Dalla Chiesa (Forza Italia), and it is decidedly articulate since it would introduce as many as 29 paragraphs, with the first one going to repeal 18app (this is the name of the bonus), and the others going to allocate the bonus funds (230 million euros).

Here is what the three majority members intend to do with the money saved. There will, meanwhile, be 40 million more for the Fund for Economic Support for Cultural Workers, established in last year’s budget law. Then there is the idea of establishing a “Book Fund” endowed with 15 million a year. Still, 40 million a year will go to the “Great Cultural Heritage Projects” strategic plan, while there will be 3 million euros a year more for the National Fund for Historical Reenactment. Then, there will be 2 million euros earmarked for celebrations of the 150th anniversary of Guglielmo Marconi’s birth. An additional 40 million euros will go to the National Fund for Live Performing Arts, while 25 million euros a year, starting in 2023, are provided to “allow the Ministry of Culture the coercive acquisitions of cultural property in the areas of its competence by way of export purchase or expropriation,” as well as “acquisitions following private negotiations.” Then there are 10 million euros more for the promotion of cinema viewing, 5 million euros for the financing of “historic carnivals with a recognizable cultural identity,” 1 million euros for the support of festivals, choirs and bands, 13.3 million euros more for museums, 30 million euros more for the Cultural Heritage Protection Fund, 300.000 euros per year to support the historical re-enactment activities of “La Girandola” in Rome, 1 million for the “Vittoriano Foundation,” which the amendment, if approved, would give birth to.

In addition, Mollicone, Sasso and Dalla Chiesa say that a “Culture Card” will be introduced to replace 18app: “Parliament,” the three parliamentarians say in a note, “will give top priority to supporting the cultural supply chain, such as theater, music, cinema, book publishing, and private cultural heritage such as historic houses. Parliament’s will is to overhaul the 18app and introduce more general culture demand incentive policies that can support cultural consumption in the current crisis. Replacing 18app with a new ’culture card’ is a measure designed to protect against the distortion of the purpose of the application that is widely used for the purchase of textbooks. Therefore, we believe it should be revised and enhanced by agreeing with the productive categories of culture. Minister Sangiuliano and the undersecretaries are already working to convene a meeting in early January with the categories involved to define the lines of this new ’culture card,’ without abuse and with support also for the purchase of school books, supporting families.”

Of course, comments on the measure are already flowing in. Among the first to make themselves heard is MP Valentina Grippo of Azione-Italia Viva, who writes on Twitter, “With cultural consumption in decline and school dropout rates alarmingly high, it is absurd that they are thinking of suppressing the 18App, a tool that has brought so many kids closer to art and culture.” Angelo Bonelli (Greens) says, “Fratelli d’Italia, Lega and Forza Italia have submitted an amendment to suppress the culture bonus for 18-year-olds, the 500 euros for cultural consumption, and divert funds to historic carnivals, celebrations on Marconi and for as many as 750 hires in ministries. It is disgraceful: not supporting culture and simultaneously cutting funding to young people, made structural in the previous Budget Law, means cutting funding to the future those young people represent.” Also joining the chorus of protests is former minister Dario Franceschini: “A majority amendment resets the `app 18′ to zero. This is absurd after France, Spain and Germany introduced a culture bonus explicitly inspired by ours. The government backtracks and does not cut culture.” Also opposed were members of the 5-Star Movement in the culture committees of the House and Senate: “It was evidently not enough for the Right not to have provided any resources for culture in the maneuver presented to Parliament. Now with an amendment to the budget law they want to repeal the Culture Bonus, known as 18app. The damage would be enormous, because the resources to cover this tool were made stable in the last budget law and the sector’s operators count on those revenues.” For Matteo Renzi, leader of Italia Viva, canceling 18app is “madness.” “Why are they afraid of culture? I am ready for a parliamentary filibuster. But I ask everyone to give us a hand”: in fact, Renzi has launched a petition to ask the majority to back down. Simona Malpezzi of the Pd appealed to the culture minister: “Minister Sangiuliano, at this point we expect your contrary opinion: we are sure you do not want to be remembered as the minister who did not defend the snatching of 230 million for the cultural consumption of 18-year-olds. The government is not a spectator.”

The majority, however, rallies around the three signatories of the amendment. For Maurizio Gasparri (Forza Italia) it is “Useless the rising of shields of the PD and others in defense of the ’18App’ wanted by Renzi and then also by Franceschini. Under the hat of a measure designed to broaden, rightly, the tools for the enjoyment of culture, cheating and cunning have multiplied. Too many with that 500 euros, bought themselves cell phones, video games and even washing machines.” For Raffaele Speranzon (FdI), they were “Debunked the solons of the left. As we promised, we have financed and made the discontinuity allowance structural. An important investment to ensure security and stability for our artists.” For party colleague Guerino Testa, “App 18 has failed in its mission: to bring young people closer to books and culture, with 230 million a year that are often not used for the intended purposes. The goal of the majority amendment is precisely to rethink the tool with structural interventions.” Undersecretary Vittorio Sgarbi also speaks: “It is evident the bad faith of the defenders of 18App, that is, the culture bonus that the government is trying to take away from obvious distortions and abuses. The false invoices for book purchases discovered by the Guardia di Finanza lead to the avoidance of an indistinct handout to ensure the real circulation of books to young recipients of the subsidy. In fact, it should not be delivered into the hands of individual and uncontrollable users, nor can it be thought that the ministry or schools can generically donate books equivalent to the established financial endowment, but that booksellers, promoters and animators of culture, have a bonus that they can then account for by guaranteeing the actual distribution of books of young people’s choice, until the amount guaranteed by the state is reached. In essence, no gift money, but gift books, with a documentable list of titles distributed at the request of young people. This is not a form of distrust but a similar result achieved without risk of detour of money to other purposes. A young person will thus be able to desire and acquire 200, 300, 400 euros worth of books until his bonus is consumed, without haggling over agreed bills. It seems to me that even Franceschini can understand this. So the bonus is transformed into a kind of subscription to the books that you want and you can pick up at the bookstore.” Finally, Minister Sangiuliano merely said that Parliament will have a say on the decision.

Majority wants to eliminate 18app, the 18-year-old culture bonus: amendment in maneuver

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