The protests against Antwerp’s cultural policy started over a month ago when the city’s new budget was proposed. Savings could be made on, among other things, the culture cabinet. The annual project subsidy pot of 720,000 euros – mainly for young, novice artists – will be canceled for at least three years. Well-known Flemish people such as Jan Decleir, Tom Lanoye and Stany Crets jump on the barricades for their sector and ships Aid Daoud was lamented at every public display.

The polemic threatened to come to a halt when all city poets plots collectively resigned and not a good word about the cultural policy of N-VA. That same weekend the ships opened a door. They would look within the culture budget to find supportive support for starting artists. The Antwerps Kunstenoverleg (AKO) and the culture cabinet are now looking at when they can sit together. But in the meantime, tempers flared again a cartoon shared by N-VA Antwerp and a large interview in this newspaper with the Ait Daoud, who was not always very diplomatic.

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“Initially, we argued against scrapping the subsidies,” says Mil Sinaeve of the student protest For Future. “Then we mainly wanted a dialogue with the ships, which never materialized. Then again it came to light how little transparency the cultural policy in the city is, and that advisory bodies were becoming commonplace. The clearly right-wing underbelly of Antwerp’s cultural policy, with the cartoon and the interview with the aldermen as low points, was the following. Then again there appears to be money for it a huge new car park at the MAS, or for the restoration of an employee’s grave. Every week something is added. It is clear that the guarantee of N-VA does not lie with culture. Several maybe higher values ​​like The Scream by Edvard Munch.”

In the early weeks, it will still be busy in the town hall, with the culture committee on the program next week and a few days later the municipality where the new budget and culture cuts must be made. “We will therefore continue to be on the street in the following weeks, in this beautiful, wintery weather”, cheap Mil. “The only benefit of these protests is that we have met For Future with a huge network that can be built since our first action.”

On Friday, actress Viviane De Muynck, former city poet Maud Vanhauwaert, musician Gregory Frateur and choreographer Joffrey Anane were also present during the protest.