Although the experts did not insist on this, the consultation committee decided last night to lock down the cultural sector.

'Once again, the cultural sector is the hardest hit. The fact that the Prime Minister, who is also responsible for culture, is fighting harder to keep the hospitality industry open than for our cultural sector, is shocking. We urge him to stand up for the cultural sector and for the strict decisions to be reversed,' denounce Green MPs Elisabeth Meuleman and Lotte Stoops. The surprise and upheaval are great after the consultation committee decided to close the cultural sector from Sunday. The sector has already suffered a lot of blows in recent months and is now being hit hard again. "The sector is furious, and rightly so. They have done everything in the past year and a half to be able to stay open safely, which the experts acknowledge. Since Prime Minister Jambon, as the competent minister, does not stand up for them, we will do it and we urge a rollback of the strict measures," meuleman and Stoops said. The Green MPs denounce that the decision was taken without the experts having explicitly asked for it. 'While in the past ministers pulled out all the stops to keep 'their' sector open, Mr Jambon's culture is apparently limited to Christmas markets and catering establishments. That is unworthy of a Minister of Culture.' Meuleman and Stoops urge the Prime Minister to finally really engage with the sector and support them instead of leaving them to their own devices. "We now know that COVID will not be over immediately. Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Petra De Sutter proposed to work with a COVID Event Risk Model (CERM). It is high time that the Prime Minister took this to heart and finally put into practice the long-term vision that the sector itself has been asking for for months," the Green MPs conclude.