On Thursday, the government will present the budget proposal for 2025, and among the many who have demanded increased cultural grants are opposition politicians from five regions. Last year, the government chose not to cost- or inflation-compensate, for example, the allocation of SEK 1.7 billion to regional culture.
In an open letter to Culture Minister Parisa Liljestrand (M), regional politicians express their concern, which Dagens Nyheter has reported on.
In the worst case, it could mean "shutdown of operations" according to Alex Bergström (S), chairman of the Västra Götaland region's cultural committee.
When it comes to cultural policy, there is a conflict of interest in the government, believes Andreas Johansson Heinö, political scientist and publisher at the liberal think tank Timbro's publishing house:
I think the culture minister and her colleagues are working uphill.
Poor Response
He guesses that Parisa Liljestrand (M) is trying to get more money for regional culture, but the response is poor.
Cultural policy is becoming lower priority than other cultural areas, I think that has been noticed both in the budgets and in the government's rhetoric.
Andreas Johansson Heinö believes that the investments that are still being made will instead go to the same areas as last year: digitization of cultural heritage, work against anti-Semitism, and reading initiatives for children and young people.
Private Funds
Simon Norrthon at Scen & film notes that the culture minister wants to reduce culture's "public dependence" in favor of more private financing. To TT, Parisa Liljestrand has said that the state should not back down.
I appreciate that, but we also know that we've had a pretty high inflation rate in recent years, so when the allocations remain at exactly the same level as last year, it means a cut, he says.
Price increases alone force operations to cut back on programming, he emphasizes. The Opera, Dramaten, and Riksteatern received reduced allocations last year.
Another major problem, according to Norrthon, is that schools can no longer afford to order performances as before.
The professional cultural life is on a tight budget. The audience is back at a higher level than before the pandemic, but operations that need public funding to fulfill their mission must do so with fewer productions, fewer employees, more collaborations, and more guest performances.
Corrected: The Theater Association is now called Scen & film.
SEK 35.5 million is allocated next year to various initiatives to strengthen Jewish organizations' security, to work against anti-Semitism, to increase knowledge about the Holocaust, and to strengthen Jewish life in Sweden, among other things. Several of the initiatives are multi-year.
SEK 19 million is allocated to the National Heritage Board to secure the state-owned cultural heritage in the event of war.
The government is expected to announce whether it will implement a merger between the Artists' Committee and the Cultural Council, despite strong criticism from the arts representatives.
