The surprise call for general elections on July 23 has put an end to dozens of laws that were being processed in Congress and the Senate. Some have been longed for for decades, such as the reform of the patronage incentive law, which, after being approved with enormous consensus in Congress, was presented to the Senate today to be approved or amended. The Film Law promoted by Miquel Iceta, which was still pending in Congress and whose decline has meant "a jug of cold water" for independent producers, has also fallen.
What there will be is a new director or director of the Reina Sofía Museum. Although there was some doubt, the ongoing selection process, in which Iceta must choose from the final shortlist of candidates proposed by the center's board of trustees and then submit her proposal to the Council of Ministers, continues. From the museum they remember that Councils of Ministers will continue to be held. And that until after the elections the ministers do not start to be in office. And even in that case, they say, they can stop and name. "Everything is taking its course and, if there are no surprises, next week there will be news," they remark.
On the other hand, there is sadness for those affected by the fall of the reform of the Law on the tax regime of non-profit entities and tax incentives for patronage, a regulation that was a breath away from its final approval in the Senate. Maite Esteve, from the Fundació Catalunya Cultura, who has fought for the reform, points out that "a great step forward was taken, barriers that had not been broken for 21 years were broken, recognition was made, progress was made with crowdfunding" . A step forward, she emphasizes, "that came from a total political consensus, 90% of the parliamentary arc, and now everything is lost, we will return to the starting point after the elections, we will depend on the sensitivity of the new Government." “I want to believe that the work done will not be lost, the awareness achieved, what we have talked about, but we are sad, it has been a joint effort by the entire sector, a collective success, and now there is frustration. But we will not give up because Spain deserves a patronage law worthy of an EU country and because the beneficiaries are entities that support the Welfare State by doing what the State is not doing, foundations, associations, that need support”.
Jordi Oliva, president of PROA, the Federation of Audiovisual Producers, describes the call for elections as a “jug of cold water” that the future Cinema Law promoted by Culture has been swept away. “We have been asking for it for a long time, it has been many months of negotiation, now the great concern is to know what will happen after the elections, the draft may be recovered or everything may go to waste because the new government decides that it is not worth it. Today we have an obsolete Cinema Law, from 2007. Among other things, the new law was going to be called Cinema and Audiovisual Culture, incorporating help lines for series, measures that favored the presence of women and cinemas in the Spain emptied that they were positive. We are concerned that this will be left behind and independent producers are also concerned that a wording that goes against us could be included, as has already happened in the General Law of Audiovisual Communication. The new law has a definition that is not optimal, but it is the most propitious, and we will see if the new one will defend it or not”.
