Díaz and Urtasun, a comedy duo in search of easy, free applause

A few months ago, during a conversation I had with filmmaker Gonzalo Suárez, who was just notified that he'll be receiving the Honorary Goya Award in 2026 at the age of 90 (and I'm so glad), there was a moment when he started talking about Trump and Musk as if they were Epi and Blas, Cruz and Raya, or even Espinete and Don Pimpón. Two comedians you could interchange, and it's all the same.

I remembered the comment after listening to Yolanda Díaz and Ernest Urtasun's hour-and-a-half talk before the film industry to announce measures that may not be well known to the average citizen, but are well known to those interested, in this case, those in the film industry. Yolanda and Ernest, Díaz and Urtasun, or the other way around, whichever you prefer—although it was mostly her, who in this case was the boss at the heart of it—presented measures to improve the working conditions of artists and technicians in the cultural world. Among them was the intimacy coordinator —I use the feminine form because, as far as I know, women are the overwhelming majority in this—who would be required by law on film sets. And she said something like, "It's not going to depend on anyone's goodwill, because if we do it that way, it won't happen."

Well, the fact is that without a law, it's already happening. The figure of the privacy coordinator has grown like wildfire over the last four years in Spanish cinema for several reasons, although the main one is that platforms like Netflix, Apple TV, and HBO, which are currently financing most of the productions, require them. This began to happen in the US in 2017 and has hit like a hurricane. And not just in Spain. So, what does the government do with the news of this proposed requirement? Well, it's riding on the coattails... and seeking easy, free applause for several reasons. One: it's a figure that's existed for some time, people are working with it, and if Netflix doesn't impose it on you, HBO does, so nothing new in the East of Eden. Two: the vast majority of Spanish cinema agrees with this employment figure. And three: it's processing it as a Royal Decree to bypass (once again) that nuisance that is the Congress of Deputies. Urtasun, who is a lynx, already said it: "This is a legislature in which we are afraid of popular sovereignty."

This isn't the first time the Ministry of Culture has been late to the game and asked for applause. The minister must have been looking somewhere else when Manuel Borja-Villel, then director of the Reina Sofía Museum, repeatedly announced the need to emphasize the discourse of decolonization in museums (and to no small degree of outrage). And when half of Europe had already begun to rethink the kind of figurines they had in their stores and their provenance, Urtasun said that decolonization was as good as the discovery of gunpowder. Since then, by the way, little has been heard from him on this matter.

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A few weeks ago, the Ministry also presented its flagship plan, the Cultural Rights Plan, 146 measures that seek to bring culture to rural areas, the education system, and prisons, and to end inequality based on income, gender, or location when accessing the cultural world for enjoyment or creation. In other words, bringing cinema, theater, and a good library to the villages. I think this is great because it doesn't seem fair that in cities like Madrid, for example, we enjoy the best theatrical releases—subsidized by everyone—and these don't reach many Spanish cities. If you don't want to go, then don't go, but at least have the opportunity. I always understood that this was social democracy.

But I was shocked when I found out the budget: 79 million euros between now and 2027. It's also true that the ministry had to scrape it up under the surface because, as we know, there are no new budgets, but really, 79 million euros? I made a quick comparison (a bit demagogic, but numbers are numbers) on the internet: the MOVES III plan for electric car aid, 1.55 billion euros between 2021 and 2025; the state plan for scientific and technical research 2024-2027 is 18.4 billion euros... Okay, I'll focus only on culture: Miquel Iceta's cultural voucher for young people was 400 million euros.

The figure of the intimacy coordinator has grown rapidly in the last four years in Spanish cinema.

In the cultural sphere, democratic governments to date have chosen two paths: either the French approach of hyper-subsidization or the Anglo-Saxon approach of patronage (and aid). In Spain, the truth is that we've always fallen somewhere in the middle, and neither is culture overly subsidized (as much as some might believe), nor have we ever been able to pass a patronage law regulating this type of aid. So, it's neither here nor there.

That's why it's even irritating when a minister constantly brings up Latin American leftist thinkers who say that the revolution is like a bicycle, and if you don't pedal it, it falls, because the point is clear: if you want to go all out, invest a lot of money in those progressive and necessary measures and don't seek gratuitous applause for advances that society has already made on its own.