The theatre seats, which served as the tractors of the arts in North Brabant on Friday 15 May 2020, have had an effect. At least, so it seems. The Provincial Executive Indeed, have brought back the word 'culture' in the budget. However, it turns out to be a Pyrrhus victory, because at the same time the Province is also not going to follow the agreements with the State, and will cut the total budget for sports, leisure and De Stilte by 13 and 14.5 million respectively in the coming period. Commitments made by the Province under the national Basic Infrastructure (BIS) were ignored by the Provincial Executive: a motion calling for respecting BIS commitments was rejected.
To make the confusion complete, VVD MP Christophe van der Maat on Facebook with a narrative that the province is not stopping culture at all. He states, "Some 35 million euros will be available annually from the permanent budget for provincial policy on culture, heritage and sports from 2023 onwards. The budget for the 20s, 21s and 22s also remains unchanged. As such, it is and will remain one of the largest programmes with substantial financial possibilities. In addition, we are investing an extra 30 million euros in culture, heritage and sport over the next three years.'
The latter is a consequence of the administrative agreement, which the college cannot get out of. And, to catch Van der Maat immediately on a distortion: no one claimed that the province would 'completely' stop culture.
Flower parade
This director's message is therefore incorrect. After all, the cut of 13 and 14.5 million from the budget of the former Leisure, Sports and Heritage does of course also come at the expense of the 'culture' component. And after that, even more goes off. The province ends up with 35 million for everything, which is indeed a cut of more than 25 per cent from the current 52.1 million.
Christophe van der Maat's message is thus the finest example of spin-doing imaginable. Because, indeed, the province will still spend money on culture after this, but no longer as a matter of course on the same institutions and creators that currently benefit from it. Indeed, with such institutions, the subsidy relationship will be 'phased out'. To the 'new (Brabant) normal'.
Associated?
Think 'carnival', think 'pottery', think 'flower parade'. Van der Maat: 'For instance, we also want to encourage even more Brabanders to participate in society. Because we think tourism and recreation can also play an important and reinforcing role in this, we are adding these and corresponding funding to the 'Leisure' policy.
Then again, I am very curious how many - and which - Brabanders are not participating in society now. It is nowhere explained. Furthermore, the wording 'with associated funding' is heavily misleading. Indeed, wording it this way assumes that tourism and recreation would be added with their own extra budget. But they are being added, with extra cut from the rest.
Goat out of the top hat
So culture is used for tourism, and tourism in turn is going to take a bite out of the already shrunken budget for culture, heritage, sports, leisure and now tourism. That will be an awful lot of piglets on the sow, to put it in terms the CDA can understand. On top of that, the VVD gentleman now suddenly conjures a goat out of the top hat, which we did not yet see back in the rhetorical policy document with which the new college caused all this panic last week: because the interest on the Essent funds is disappointing, province-wide cuts of 30 million a year have to be made.
Van der Maat: 'We do that in different areas: mobility (-6 million), nature (-10 million) and leisure (-7 million). Only a limited part of that -7 million should be contributed from culture. All other parts of the province together should also deliver savings plans for -7 million.'
Additional cut
So there will be an additional cut of 7 million for culture, leisure, sports and recreation and tourism (in addition to a total of 16 million less for cycle paths and clean air). Pig farmers will not face cuts, and on the energy front, Brabant will save up for a Thorium reactor, a promising technology that will probably not find a profitable application until around 2070, but you'd better get there early.
Until that reactor can do its salutary work as a replacement for the country's most polluting power plant near Geertruidenberg, the industry's patience will continue: 'In the coming period, we will engage with all parties to build a great programme in the fields of sports, culture, heritage and tourism/recreation. Both for creators and enjoyers.' This appears to be enough to silence all protest voices. Less Jeroen de Man, more Iron Man.
Sometimes politics is easy. Just look at House of Cards.
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