{"id":1157507,"date":"2021-12-26T13:04:32","date_gmt":"2021-12-26T18:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1157507"},"modified":"2021-12-26T13:04:39","modified_gmt":"2021-12-26T18:04:39","slug":"no-culture-no-future-thousands-protest-in-brussels-against-restrictions-on-arts-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/no-culture-no-future-thousands-protest-in-brussels-against-restrictions-on-arts-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"&#039;No Culture, No future&#039;: Thousands Protest in Brussels Against Restrictions on Arts Sector"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fno-culture-no-future-thousands-protest-in-brussels-against-restrictions-on-arts-sector%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1157507&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">BRUSSELS (AP) \u2013 Thousands of Belgian performers, cinema operators, event organizers and others joined together Sunday to protest the government\u2019s decision to close down the country\u2019s cultural life to stem the spread of the surging omicron variant.<\/p>\n<p>Waving posters reading \u201cThe show must go on\u201d or \u201cNo culture, no future,\u201d the crowd demonstrated peacefully despite the pouring rain, accusing the government of unfairly targeting the culture industry with the new virus restrictions.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>Under the measures, which took effect Sunday, events like Christmas markets are allowed to continue, despite their boisterous, chaotic gluhwein (mulled wine) parties, and restaurants and bars are allowed to stay open with some new restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>Even the scientific committee advising the Belgian government had not asked for the culture industry closures, leaving virologist Marc Van Ranst to ponder that in Belgium \u201cgluhwein beat culture.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Scores of movie theaters and other venues disregarded the closure order, according to state broadcaster RTBF.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<div id=\"attachment_19267746\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-1237423289.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19267746\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-1237423289.png\" alt=\"A protester holds a placard reading &quot;Minister? No! Culture killer, yes!&quot; during a demonstration against Covid-19 restrictions in Brussels, on December 26, 2021. - Cinemas, concert halls and other entertainment venues closed since December 26, 2021, as three in 10 Covid cases are now Omicron in Belgium. - Belgium OUT (Photo by NICOLAS MAETERLINCK \/ BELGA \/ AFP) \/ Belgium OUT (Photo by NICOLAS MAETERLINCK\/BELGA\/AFP via Getty Images)\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A protester holds a placard reading \u201cMinister? No! Culture killer, yes!\u201d during a demonstration against Covid-19 restrictions in Brussels, on December 26, 2021. \u2013 Cinemas, concert halls and other entertainment venues closed since December 26, 2021, as three in 10 Covid cases are now Omicron in Belgium. \u2013 Belgium OUT (Photo by NICOLAS MAETERLINCK \/ BELGA \/ AFP) \/ Belgium OUT (Photo by NICOLAS MAETERLINCK\/BELGA\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>A brass band accompanied Sunday\u2019s demonstration and the Place de la Monnaie in Brussels, the symbolic spot which spawned Belgian independence in 1830, and prominent cultural figures took to the stage to air their grievances. Organizers urged participants to wear masks and maintain social distancing. Authorities estimated 5,000 people took part and it ended peacefully.<\/p>\n<p>Under the new rules, indoor public activities are strictly limited, shopping is curtailed and sports fans won\u00b4t be allowed into stadiums and indoor venues. The Belgian government shied away, however, from a full lockdown like that imposed in the neighboring Netherlands for the holiday season.<\/p>\n<p>After almost two years of forced closures and limited openings, the culture sector had hoped its efforts, including special air quality meters in halls, separated seats and limited visitor capacities, would allow it to escape the brunt of the virus restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>The Belgian measures come despite a steady decline in COVID-19 hospital admissions in recent weeks. The government said the fast transmission of the omicron variant made it necessary to take preventive measures.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Ten of thousands of people demonstrated through central Brussels on Sunday to protest reinforced COVID-19 restrictions imposed by the Belgian government to counter the latest spike in coronavirus cases. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HRn3qJwv4Q\">https:\/\/t.co\/HRn3qJwv4Q<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BreitbartNews\/status\/1462645702039851010?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 22, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BRUSSELS (AP) \u2013 Thousands of Belgian performers, cinema operators, event organizers and others joined together Sunday to protest the government\u2019s decision to close down the country\u2019s cultural life to stem &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1157507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1157507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1157507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1157507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1157507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}