Disowned by the justice system, the Belgian government backtracked on Wednesday by reopening theaters and cinemas, closed last week to fight against the Omicron variant, a decision that had aroused the rebellion in artistic circles. A gauge of 200 people, strongly contested, has however been maintained.
The government had decided on December 22 to close theaters, performance halls and cinemas for at least two weeks from December 26, causing the rebellion of part of the sector which had decided to defy the ban and maintain these open places.
Several thousand people demonstrated in Brussels on Sunday to demand the withdrawal of a measure deemed all the more discriminatory as, at the same time, restaurants and cafes remained open. The government’s backtracking was expected after the decision Tuesday of the Council of State, seized in an emergency, which suspended this closure.
For the highest administrative court, the authorities have not shown “how theaters in the cultural sector would be particularly dangerous places for the health and life of people as they would promote the spread of the coronavirus, at point that it is necessary to order its closure ”.
Even before this judgment, the president of the Socialist Party, which belongs to the government coalition, had regretted a misstep: “we must have the humility to recognize it: collectively, we were wrong,” Paul Magnette said on Monday.
Seized by the producer of a humorous show in Auderghem, in the suburbs of Brussels, the Council of State had only ruled on theaters and theaters, not on cinemas.
The government included them, along with the events industry, in its decision on Wednesday. In practice, Belgium is reverting to the rules adopted on December 3: only seats, wearing a compulsory mask, health passport from 50 people and a maximum of 200 spectators.
Even before this decision, Kinepolis, the country’s largest cinema operator, announced that it would resume its screenings on Wednesday, while its rival UGC planned to reopen its theaters on Thursday.
“For the first time, measures [anti-COVID] aroused an extremely important reaction from civil society, and the Council of State denounced illegal, discriminatory and disproportionate behavior by the government, ”declared lawyer Jacques Englebert, who defended cinemas.
“Discriminatory gauge”
As for theaters and theaters, which hail “a great victory”, maintaining a maximum threshold of 200 people, however, gives rise to misunderstanding. It “is discriminatory, because it applies to the entire sector without considering the characteristics of the rooms”, criticizes Pierre-Arnaud Perrouty, director of the Human Rights League, while welcoming that the government has returned to “a bad decision ”.
Several sports federations rushed into the breach by calling on Wednesday for an easing of health restrictions prohibiting the presence of the public in the stadiums, threatening to also resort to the Council of State.
“It will be on a case-by-case basis. Everyone will have to provide evidence of disproportionate treatment, ”warns Me Englebert, stressing that for culture, “an attack on freedom of expression” could be invoked, a reason that does not exist for other sectors.