MOVA – Movimento pela Arte e Cultura nos Açores — has issued a stark warning over what it calls a “rollback” in Azorean cultural policy, criticizing a draft regional legislative decree proposed by the Iniciativa Liberal political party that is currently under review in the Azorean Parliament.

In an open letter addressed to the president of the Assembleia Legislativa dos Açores and to the chair of the Comissão Especializada Permanente de Assuntos Sociais, MOVA argues that the proposal would amount to a wholesale replacement of the existing legal framework governing public support for cultural creation, production, dissemination, and promotion.

According to the movement, the proposed shift is rooted in a clear political logic: public funding for culture would be reframed as subsidiary, exceptional, and merely complementary—intervening only to correct so-called “market failures.”

“Public funding ceases to be understood as a structural instrument of cultural policy and becomes conditional on criteria such as merit, measurable impact, and economic sustainability,” the letter states. “This change is not merely technical. It represents a profound reconfiguration of the role of the State in culture.”

The document is signed by cultural practitioners from several islands and across multiple artistic disciplines. MOVA stresses that its position should not be read as opposition to updating cultural funding mechanisms. On the contrary, the movement notes that since 2023 it has actively contributed to discussions on improving existing support systems, advocating greater transparency, predictability, and procedural quality, in dialogue with the regional government.

Still, MOVA voices concern that the proposal could deepen internal inequalities within the cultural sector, indirectly penalize experimental, community-based, and small-scale artistic creation, and diminish the value of culture as a tool for social, territorial, and democratic cohesion. The group is calling for a broad and inclusive public debate.

“Let us be clear,” the letter continues. “The Azorean cultural sector has always operated under a co-funding model. There has never been 100 percent financing, nor a system of sustained structural support comparable to that provided by DGArtes. The problem with this proposal is not the maintenance of those rules, but the fact that it elevates economic criteria into the primary source of political legitimacy for public cultural support.”

MOVA acknowledges that the proposal introduces improvements in areas such as transparency, clearer timelines, public disclosure of decisions, and greater accountability within the public administration—including provisions for interest payments in cases of delayed funding.

However, the movement argues that these measures address only the quality of administrative management and fail to confront the deeper structural challenges facing Azorean culture.

“A State can streamline procedures and still retreat from its political commitment to culture,” the letter concludes. “That retreat is precisely what this proposal enshrines.”

In Diário Insular, José Lourenço-director.