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Martin Bosma

"1 billion loss? There are other figures." Halbe Zijlstra refers Berenschot report to trash.

by Wijbrand Schaap
23 September 201130 March 2022
4 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

At the end of August came the figures. And what figures they were. Due to the stacking of extreme cuts by government, provinces and municipalities, the abolition of the successful Work and Income for Artists Act and the equally successful culture card, plus the VAT increase on the arts, the Netherlands' cultural sector would end up missing out on €1 billion in revenue. Berenschot had estimated that in...

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Budget note: We put together the cultural haircut percentages

by one of our members
16 September 201129 March 2022
7 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Let's start again with yet another sloppiness of the Rutte government: that damned VAT measure on the arts, which are the only ones to be bounced to the 'normal' rate of 19%. VVD doesn't like it, CDA isn't happy about it, but, because tolerance specialist Martin Bosma once had to play a red toadstool in the school play, he has forever...

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It's final: the format for arts subsidies until 2016 is with the chamber

by one of our members
25 August 201130 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

We have another letter from the secretary of state for culture. Halbe Zijlstra has sent it to parliament, to make it official that from 2013 a very bleak wind is going to blow in arts land. That makes cuts of 200 million final, still excluding the probably 150 million in so-called friction costs that the ministry also has to get from somewhere (u...

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That could well be a big event next weekend

by one of our members
22 June 20118 July 2016
3 min read
ACTUAL

We are not big on copying press releases directly, but this one accidentally slipped in. For those who didn't know it yet, but tout art is going loopy on Sunday and Monday for the preservation of sanity in the Netherlands. Although that will have no effect on the architect of the cut, PVV member Martin Bosma. Even the cultural sector in Limburg (Geert...

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Cultural policy Rutte cabinet advised against by patrons and entrepreneurs; PVV absent from hearing on future of Dutch culture

by Wijbrand Schaap
20 June 201130 March 2022
6 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Actually, there was only one compliment for the cabinet, which is in the process of cutting an average 30% from a sector that employs tens of thousands of Dutch people. At the hearing convened by the second chamber on Monday 20 June, only cultural sociologist Arjo Klamer was positive about the decisiveness shown by State Secretary Zijlstra. That he did subsequently think that...

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"We still spend hundreds of millions on culture"

by Wijbrand Schaap
11 June 201129 March 2022
3 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

Stronger than ever in recent years, the influence of spin doctors on politics has been noticeable. While at first it was only the PVV, in the person of Martin Bosma, who introduced the American methods of 'framing', it is now also standing Cabinet policy. We all know the Henk and Ingrids, the hardworking Dutch and the head rag tax. And now there is the...

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Limburg lion awakens: the heartland of the PVV rebels against culture cuts

by one of our members
26 May 20118 July 2016
2 min read
ACTUAL

When even André Rieu gets involved, the asparagus is done. In Maastricht, but also in The Hague. Because André Rieu, that's Limburg, that's popular culture, that's, according to the ministry, the country's most important export product and if it says you have to keep your hands off the Limburg Symphony Orchestra, then you keep your hands...

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Column: "As soon as they start embracing art in the PVV, right-thinking people should start watching out."

by Wijbrand Schaap
20 December 20108 July 2016
5 min read
ACTUAL

The Hague is quite complicated for those who do not visit it on a daily basis. I was there last Monday, as a spectator at the discussion of the culture and media budget, and it has taken me until now to fully understand what is going on. For that understanding, being there live was essential. After all, to understand a social system like the Lower House, you not only have to listen to what is being said, and see who is speaking, much more important are the 'listening shots': the body language and actions of those who are not speaking.

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Arts budget debated in second chamber: hardly any discussion on 200 million cut to performing arts

by one of our members
14 December 201030 March 2022
14 min read
ACTUAL, For members only

We were at a debate day in The Hague that was as inconspicuous as it was historic on 13 December 2010: it was about the budget of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science of the (first?) Rutte government, and that was the budget in which, at the request of the supporting party PVV, the amount to be cut in the arts budget was set at 200 million, with heritage and museums having to...

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