Our View: Option for Limassol theatre all part of socialist thinking

The Limassol municipality has asked that it is given the ownership of the iconic Rialto theatre by the state. Although the finance ministry has agreed to the transfer, the council of ministers failed to approve the proposal twice, for unknown reasons. The theatre had come under the ownership of the state in 2018 when it sold off the assets of the bankrupt co-op central bank. Before then it was owned by the Limassol co-op credit bank, which bought the Rialto in 1991 and had invested a significant amount of money for its refurbishment which lasted eight years. As the new owner of the theatre in 2018, they appointed a board of directors to run it and subsidised an estimated 20 per cent of its running costs. Now, the municipality wants to be given the theatre for free, on the dubious grounds that it belongs to the people of Limassol. This, according to the mayor of Limassol, Yiannis Armeftis, would not only help the state and municipality, but also the development of the theatre. He was quoted as saying by Haravghi newspaper, that “a strong board of directors, supported by the municipality, would be able to secure funding more easily than if it were under state ownership.” The municipality would be prepared to cover 50 per cent of the theatre’s running costs, he said. This is indicative of the prevailing socialist tendency of the political establishment which wants the arts and theatres controlled by a central authority, so they would be funded by the taxpayer. Nobody is interested in making the Rialto theatre a viable arts establishment; the idea of selling it to the highest bidder was never explored, because according to popular wisdom, it belongs to the people of Limassol. The fairest arrangement, according to a former Akel deputy involved in the co-ops, would be for the ownership of the Rialto to be given to an agency that represents the town, which could be no other than the municipality. The only problem is that municipalities, like the state, are not very good at running theatres because they have little business sense and invariably rely on the taxpayer to fund the losses of their cultural projects. It is all part of the prevailing socialist thinking. Perhaps the council of ministers ought to explore the possibility of leasing the theatre to a private company instead of giving it for free to the Limassol municipality. The Rialto would still serve the people of Limassol if it is owned by a private business and could provide more varied entertainment than a theatre run by municipal bureaucrats. There are plenty of wealthy businesses and individuals in Limassol who could be willing to lease the Rialto theatre and make it a viable entity without burdening the taxpayer.