Ua meeting on the morning of this Tuesday, 26th, in São Paulo, between the Secretary of Culture, Economy and Creative Industry of São Paulo, Marília Marton, and representatives of artists, managers, producers and cultural collectives from São Paulo, in São Paulo , brought some timid advances in an impasse that worsens three days before the closing of registrations for the Paulo Gustavo Law notices in the State.
The artists' representatives ask the State government to suspend the notices so that the points of distortion they present in relation to the original text of the law can be remedied. The State government demonstrated a willingness to dialogue and even promised to make some changes, the most significant of which was the requirement that the CNPJ of companies applying for resources have more than five years of activity before they can participate. The time required would drop from five to three years. The secretary, however, made the changes conditional on the federal government extending the deadline for the use of resources by federative entities – currently, the deadline for using the amounts transferred by the Union is December 31st of this year.
But the government's action may turn out to be innocuous, since, on the afternoon of Monday, the 25th, the Federal Public Defender's Office in the State of São Paulo filed a Public Civil Action in the 14th Court of Federal Civil Justice, asking for an injunction to suspension of notices “due to violations of the legality and purpose” of the Paulo Gustavo Law. Federal public defender Guillermo Rojas de Cerqueira César also highlighted the restrictive nature of government publications and asked for the temporary blocking of resources and a conciliation hearing to remedy the defects in the selection. The Public Defender's Office's action was added to 23 others that have already been filed since last week by dissatisfied artists. Today, the Public Ministry of Labor (Regional Labor Attorney's Office of the 2nd Region) also joined the case, which expands the spectrum of definitions within the scope of the Paulo Gustavo Law, given its characteristic of generating jobs and the character of social emergency .
The deadline for registrations in some notices of the Paulo Gustavo Law already ends at midnight this Tuesday, as is the case with the production of feature films, low-budget feature films budget, production of series and web series and licensing of works. The suspension, if arbitrated by the Courts, will result in this period being eventually reopened.
The Paulo Gustavo Law is a federal law to promote culture that was created in 2021 and approved in 2022 – with broad support from the National Congress and the national artistic community. Like the Aldir Blanc Law (LAB), of 2020, this is emergency legislation that provides for actions aimed at the cultural sector (due to the economic and social effects of the Covid-19 pandemic). Across the country, R$3,8 billion is being injected into culture through the LPG by the end of this year (R$355 million was allocated to São Paulo).
