Several years ago, I was still a student, at a friend’s birthday party, when asked about the music she was going to play at the party, she replied “objectively good music”. My friend was joking, of course, but unfortunately there are those who understand that culture and art, in all its forms of expression and manifestation (theatre, cinema, literature, music, painting, among others) can be qualified and cataloged as “good or bad”, “left or right”, “low quality or good quality” as an extreme right-wing municipal deputy did recently in the Lisbon Municipal Assembly.
Assessments of this nature, with the consequent appeal to public authorities to intervene in cultural programming, quickly slide into censorship and illegitimate interference in free cultural creation, in violation of article 42 of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, which guarantees “freedom of intellectual, artistic and scientific creation”.
In Democracy, culture and artistic creation must be free. And, to be free, political power must unequivocally refuse any and all forms of interference, which requires transparency in the support, options and appointments of directors and programmers. And the only way to guarantee transparency is by adopting open, clear procedures that generate trust and allow for the evaluation and full justification of decisions. It’s not about people, parties or ideologies. It is about transparency, fairness and democratic scrutiny.
Only with transparent procedures can agreements and exchanges of favors that undermine Democracy and often result in an embarrassment for public authorities be avoided, as recently happened in the case of the person appointed by the Mayor for Social Services at Lisbon City Council.
Only with transparent procedures can the opacity evident in the lack of explanations and refusal to provide clarifications be combated.
Only with transparent procedures can we combat the arrogance of those who think they are in charge of institutions.
In Lisbon, the yielding of the right to the far-right agenda on various issues, and also to control cultural and artistic creation, subordinating it to political power – as was expressly assumed by the same municipal deputy at the last meeting of the Lisbon Municipal Assembly – cannot go unharmed, without a general wave of indignation in Portuguese society.
If we compromise now in the face of what is happening, a pillar of Democracy will be called into question and a very dangerous step will be taken on the path to a less plural, less tolerant, less free and less democratic country.
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