In April 2015, the then Secretary of State of the PSD-CDS coalition admitted, in statements to the TSF, that the Culture sector saw itself with the smallest share ever in a State budget.
2015 was also an election year and, as is common, at those times, little is discussed about cultural (or other) policies, but references to Culture are always to point out its importance for our development: the Portuguese language is always a very important thing ; the preservation of our heritage, material and immaterial is always a very important thing; support for artistic creation, internationalization and film production are always very important things.
No one with political responsibilities dares to say otherwise. The problem is practice.
And practice tells us that culture isn't all that important after all. If it were, the least one could expect from a left-wing government with parliamentary support from BE and PCP, two political forces that have long claimed the mythical goal of 1% of the State Budget for Culture, was that, in 2016 , the budget had a little more slack than in 2015.
As much as industry agents claimed the mythical 1%, everyone was aware that, in the current situation, it would be impossible, but everyone would be, I think, sure that something would improve.
The status of Ministry was recovered and, when the name of the minister who would occupy the portfolio appears, one of the arguments most used to counter the criticism that was heard was the political weight that was necessary (and that João Soares would have) for make the needs and difficulties of the sector felt in the Council of Ministers.
And we all know that the greatest difficulty and greatest challenge would be to break Culture's chronic underfunding cycle.
It is true that the State Budget is not yet closed, but everything indicates that João Soares is preparing to have an even smaller slice of the budget for Culture than the smallest slice ever that the former secretary of State had achieved in 2015 .
If the figures put forward by Público on the 5th of February are confirmed, of the 418 million euros foreseen in the Ministry's budget for 2016, 63,5% will be absorbed by RTP, which leaves around 175 million euros for Culture , well below the 219 million predicted (and I dare say not executed) by the previous government for 2015.
It is a case of saying that perhaps we were given a lighter minister than a secretary of state.
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