The decision of the Belgian federal government to close theaters, cinemas and show rooms to curb the progression of the Omicron variant is strongly disputed.
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They are about 5,000 to brave the rain, Sunday, December 26, to protest the decision of the Belgian federal government, taken Wednesday, December 22, to close cultural places to stop the progression of the Omicron variant. “It is the humiliation of too much,” said Annie Bozzini, director of Charleroi Dance. We have made efforts and followed all the previous measures. It’s unfair, unfounded and arbitrary. “
In the heart of Brussels, the crowd grumbles at the foot of Mount des Arts, renamed for the occasion “death of the arts”. The third confinement of the cultural sector is lived as a “shot of mass”, while the previous one spread over seven months. “We work with infrastructure and evolving control systems based on the health situation. We have developed these protocols with viologists. This decision is illogical,” says Peter de Caluwe, director of the royal theater of the Cash. The culture sector has reduced its gauges, installed ventilation systems, applied the sanitary pass.
The statistical elements in possession of Sciensano, the Scientific Institute of Public Health, tend to prove that theaters or cinema are on the pall of the places of contamination. “We are closed to avoid closing other sectors,” Regrets Pierre Thys, National Theater Director. Cultural sector actors do not understand why bars, restaurants, cafes, and even gyms will remain open while they are forced to close their doors from December 26 for an indefinite period.
These closures were not recommended, at this stage, by the COVID-19 crisis strategy expert group, composed of viologists, infectiologists, biostatisticians. “Today, it’s as if we were associated with culture and illness,” says Sophie Lauwers, Executive Director of the Brussels Palace of Fine Arts. The camouflet is so brutal that the decision of the government coalition, led by Prime Minister Alexander of Croo (Liberal Flemish VLD), manages to gather, against her, the Flemish and Francophone cultural sectors, united for the occasion.
A “Pacific disobedience”
The Prime Minister justified his Government’s decision by the expected consequences of the Omicron Variant’s movement in a context where hospitals are already overheat. But his decision does not pass. According to the latest epidemiological newsletter of Sciensano, the number of confirmed cases and admissions to the hospital was down on Saturday, December 25. Long criticism were issued, Thursday, December 23, in the House of Representatives, by opposition parliamentarians and the majority. Flemish’s ecologist, socialist, liberal and Christian democrats, whose parties are members of the coalition in power, have requested that this decision be reconsidered.
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