Goodbye free museums. While in Italy there is discussion about free museums, in Sweden the new center-right government led by Ulf Kristersson has abolished free admission to state museums and cut the culture budget by 1 billion Swedish crowns (about 90 million euros). The cut represents about 10 per cent of the previous budget: in 2023, in fact, Swedish culture will receive 9.033 billion crowns (about 840 million), against 10,133 in the previous year.
The cuts, explained the minister of culture Parisa Liljestrand, are mostly linked to the reduction and in some cases to the cessation of support linked to the Covid-19 pandemic. “I am proud”, Liljestrand said, “that in such a difficult situation we can protect culture”, alluding to the fact that, despite the difficult economic situation, the scissoring of culture has not been even heavier. “For the government, media freedom and a vibrant cultural life are inalienable parts of an open society. Now I have presented the balance sheet of culture, but culture is obviously influenced by government policy in other sectors, such as subsidies for energy, but also by the general increase in state subsidies to municipalities and regions ”.
The abolition of free admission to museums is also part of the perspective of saving resources. In Sweden, in fact, state museums (such as the Nationalmuseum of Stockholm, the Moderna Museet, the Historiska Museet, the Skokloster Castle, the Royal Armory and many others) have applied the British model since 2016: they are all free admission for all, and you only pay to visit the temporary exhibitions. To finance the gratuities, the Swedish government is making an annual grant available to museums. The cut of this subsidy, which corresponds to 99 million Swedish kronor (about 9.2 million euros), thus frees up resources that the government allocates to other expenditure items. The free admission will still be maintained for children and teenagers under 19 years of age.
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