“The Rome Declaration, at the end of the G20 Culture, was unanimously approved”. To give the official announcement is the Minister of Culture, Dario Franceschini, at the end of the works at Palazzo Barberini. “Of course – he adds – on 32 points in 10 pages, there were some points that found it more difficult to close an agreement, but in the end the agreement was total, after months of work. It is very important, because around the table of the G20 sit countries that now or in the past sometimes have very distant positions “.
Franceschini says he is “convinced that it is an investment in the future: the G20 Culture will be permanent and the Rome Declaration will be talked about for years as the starting point of a path that places the accent on international politics. The G20 was created to be a predominantly economic body and therefore having introduced culture into the permanent agenda of the G20 means that the economic, as well as moral, value of cultural investments“.
Observes the Minister of Culture: “As always, even the worst crises, like the one we went through for the Covid pandemic, bring opportunities and I believe that the whole world, seeing cities without music, without cinemas, without theaters, without museums, without tourists, has understood how ugly and gray cities are like this … A desire for cultural consumption and everyone understood what it means, even in terms of GDP. When I became minister of culture – recalls the owner of the MIC – I said that I was called to lead the most important economic ministry in the country: it seemed a utopia but that’s what proved to be and finally thereculture with this G20 places itself at the center of international choices“.
(by Enzo Bonaiuto)