Stany Crets furious about closing the cultural sector: “This government is incompetent and only delivers dirty work”

Today, indoor events are only possible for up to two hundred people. But from Sunday that is no longer allowed. Theater maker Stany Crets is very angry. “I am stunned,” he says. “The closure of the theaters was not advised by the experts. So I don’t understand what statement politicians want to make here again. I actually don’t understand why the experts haven’t left the GEMS expert group yet. They are not being listened to anyway.”

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According to the politicians, serious precautions must be taken to stop the rapidly advancing omikron variant. “But there are already a lot of measures in the theaters,” says Stany Crets. “Actually, the government is now saying that the mouth masks, the CST ticket and the ventilation, in which theaters have invested so much money, are worth nothing. There are people watching this from the sidelines and letting it all go, but I can’t. I’m too angry. The closure of the theaters is completely unjust.”

“No Balls”

Crets is also fed up with this government. “This government is incompetent and is only doing something wrong,” he says. “If you are really that scared of the omikron variant, you should just introduce a complete lockdown, instead of picking out certain sectors. But this government doesn’t have the balls for that.”

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According to Stany Crets, the major problem is that the culture sector does not speak with one voice. “We are so diverse,” he says. “There are subsidized performances and non-subsidised performances. And there are big and small events. Everyone has different interests and there should be different rules for each subsector.”

Finally, Crets wonders why no work is being done on a corona barometer. “We should know from what level of infections there can be re-shows. But that is still not clear. Until when do these measures actually apply? And can they be extended? There is no long-term vision, which means that the cultural sector cannot engage in long-term planning.”

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