The government has frozen its support fund to compensate the culture sector for losses during the pandemic after it emerged that large sums of money had been granted to high-earning star performers.
On Friday, the culture minister unveiled the names of over 2,000 recipients of its 400 million zloty (€89.5 million) culture support fund, designed to compensate for lost earnings due to coronavirus restrictions.
But there was immediate criticism of the appearance of big-name stars among the recipients, with many arguing that they did not deserve support at a time when people were struggling financially and the health system is under strain.
Other critics complained that greater sums appeared to have been granted for certain musical genres, such as “disco polo“, favoured by the government.
The biggest single beneficiary of the compensation scheme was a company managed by Paweł Golec, who received 1.89 million zloty. He is one of the founders of Golec uOrkiestra, a popular folk-rock band.
Other notable recipients include a company managed by Beata Kozidrak, a well-known singer, and her husband (750,000 zloty). Disco polo band Bayer Full and a firm managed by the lead singer’s wife received a combined 550,000 zloty. And Radosław Liszewski of Weekend, another popular disco polo group, got 500,000 zloty.
Giving “millions to millionaires” is “illogical and indecent”, wrote journalist Andrzej Stankiewicz, especially as the healthcare system struggles to cope with an explosion in COVID-19 cases.
“Of course these stars lost millions due to the pandemic, but they already had millions in their bank accounts,” wrote Stankiewicz in his column for Onet. “It is sad that the [culture] minister still does not understand how drastic a situation the state that he governs is in.”
Among those who suggested that the government has favoured certain types of artists was Piotr Rubik, a composer of music for film and theatre. Rubik shared a video of himself playing a disco-polo-style song and singing: “I’ll form a disco polo band and get two million.”
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Some of the big-name recipients of funding also sought to distance themselves from the scheme. Kamil Bednarek, a reggae musician slated to receive around 500,000 zloty, published a statement saying that his manager had put in the application in his name.
Grzegorz Markowski, lead singer of cult rock bank Perfekt, announced that the 500,000 zloty under their name on the ministry’s list has been granted to the band’s manager, rather than any of the musicians or producers.
“It would be immoral to apply for so great a sum of money when there are so many other people in Poland who need it a hundred times more,” wrote the band in a Facebook statement, reports Do Rzeczy. “Therefore, we kindly ask you not to include us on this list.”
O tym, kto dostał wsparcie, nie decydowały sympatie, rodzaj uprawianej sztuki, ale algorytm pokazujący kto stracił przychody w wyniku pandemii. To nie są pieniądze dla jednej osoby, ale dla całych zespołów ludzi, którzy z dnia na dzień stracili środki do życia. 2/2
— Piotr Gliński (@PiotrGlinski) November 14, 2020
In response to criticism, the government explained that the allocation of funds was decided using an algorithm based on financial declarations and other data.
The criteria included: the drop in revenue this year relative to 2019, number of employees, number of cancelled events, the impact of the funding on the local community, the proportion of earnings from music and theatre in the applicant’s total income, and debt accrued due to the pandemic.
The government also noted that the programme is being used to protect the employment of many people working in culture. “Support for the cultural sector is support for jobs,” Michał Dworczyk, head of the prime minister’s office, told RMF24 this morning.
The money distributed included 94.7 million zloty awarded to 144 local government artistic institutions, such as theatres and philharmonics.
Another 38.6 million zloty went to 306 NGOs and 91 million zloty to 448 entrepreneurs, while 175.2 million zloty will be shared between 1,166 companies providing stage engineering services.
After initially defending the scheme over the weekend – and drawing further criticism for jokingly downplaying the seriousness of the situation – on Sunday the culture minister, Piotr Gliński, announced that he had suspended disbursement of the funds.
There would be an “urgent” review of the list of beneficiaries, he pledged. However, Gliński also noted that none of the money was going to artists’ personal accounts and that recipients would have to provide invoices for how the money was spent, reports Onet.
But he admitted that, “image-wise”, the scheme did not look good to the public. Another member of the government, speaking anonymously to Gazeta.pl, said “in terms of communication, it is indefensible”.
After the scheme was frozen, a number of performers have expressed disgruntlement, noting that the money they were to receive was was meant to provide for staff wages, rather than being pocketed by the celebrities themselves.
W poniedziałek zgłoszę projekt ustawy zakazującej państwowego wsparcia dla znanych artystów i instytucji kultury. Przesuniemy te środki na wsparcie najbardziej aktywnych tweeterowiczow. Kultura na tym nie zyska, ale PR będzie OK 😉 2/2
PS – UWAGA! Tweet zawiera treści ironiczne!
— Piotr Gliński (@PiotrGlinski) November 14, 2020
Main image credit: Pawel Malecki / Agencja Gazeta
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
