Cash to be invested in culture-Bonisoli

(ANSA) - Rome, July 11 - Italy's new Culture Minister Alberto Bonisoli on Wednesday announced during a question session in the Lower House that he is thinking of a special plan to hire 6,000 people for the country's cultural institutions, which he said employed 3,000 few people compared to 2014, with 1,000 people scheduled to go into retirement annually between 2018 and 2020.
    On Tuesday, during a presentation in the Lower House, he outlined what he termed an "ambitious" programme for support to all types of culture in Italy, which he said would be given more funding starting with the next budget to support hiring, projects for city outskirts, visibility, a focus on youth, and redefining the relationship between public and private institutions.
    Bonisoli, of the 5-Star Movement (M5S), didn't provide any numbers or concrete objectives - as some opposition MPs pointed out - but he spoke with confidence about his ideas for a cultural revolution.
    "The times of cuts to culture are over," Bonisoli, "Those who came before me did a lot, but our ambition is high, we're aiming for a change of pace," he said.
    Bonisoli, a former director of the NABA Milan art and design academy with no prior experience in government, spoke extemporaneously for over an hour, highlighting essentials, priorities, projects, and expectations. Bonisoli said increased funding is one of his administration's "founding principles".
    He focused on hiring, emphasising that the ministry "needs to hire thousands of people".
    "We must find the money to do so, as well as offer civil servant exams to hire recognised professionals, without precarious contracts," he said.
    "Culture cultivates historic remembrance and the experience of the present, by building bridges to civil progress and overcoming distances between civilizations," Bonisoli said.
    MP Nicola Frantoianni of the Free and Equal party (LeU) pointed out that the current government's policies, in particular towards migrants, don't seem to be working towards building bridges between civilizations.
    Bonisoli will respond to that, as well as to the other MPs' concerns, next week.