From Milan's La Scala opera house to local cinemas, Italy's arts industry will shut down today in protest against government plans to hit the culture budget with cuts that could bring an end to the Venice Film Festival.
"It is not a question of moving on with a limp. It is much more serious," said Davide Croff, head of the Venice Biennale, which oversees the world's oldest cinema festival.
Italy's draft 2006 budget, approved by the cabinet last month, includes plans for a more than 30-per-cent cut to a fund that makes key contributions to numerous projects, from local circuses to films to Venice's Fenice opera house.
"The festival costs €8-million [$11.4-million]to €8.5-million -- a 30-per-cent cut makes this untenable. In these conditions, the film festival cannot go ahead," Mr. Croff told Reuters News Agency yesterday.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government ordered the €160-million cut to the central arts fund as part of a package of deficit-busting measures to keep the 2006 state budget under control. Besides hacking back at central funds, the budget also cuts payments to regional authorities, which provide support for local initiatives and smaller theatre companies.
"I am afraid no one thought through the consequences of this cut," said Fiorenzo Grassi, head of the Lombardy branch of industry association AGIS.
"Some two-thirds of Italian companies, particularly theatre and music, will not be able to make it through the year."
Even at the plush La Scala, workers say the cuts could prove disastrous. The theatre, facing a budget hole after a €61-million facelift, has suspended today's performance of The Barber of Seville because of the strike.