Rio Carnival has funding halved by evangelical Christian mayor

NEXT year’s Rio Carnival is under threat from budget cuts instigated by the city’s new mayor in line with his conservative religious views.

Marcelo Crivella is a gospel singer and evangelical bishop who took office in January on a platform that included maintaining financial support to the Carnival. But he has since halved public funding for Rio’s 13 leading samba schools, who now say it is not financially viable to organise next year’s festivities.

“The schools have concluded that with this 50 per cent reduction in their funds for preparing and producing Carnival, it will not be possible for them to parade,” Jorge Castanheira, the president of the LIESA association of top samba schools, told local media organisation Globo.

Mr Crivella has said he will use the money saved – about £250,000 – for each school to fund meals for children at public daycare centres.

The samba schools say Carnival, which features dozens of elaborately designed floats and thousands of dancers in glittering, multi-coloured costumes, attracts tourists from around the world, more than repaying their subsidy.

According to official tourism board Riotur, this year’s week-long festival attracted 1.1 million tourists, who spent around £700m partying in the city. The samba schools and their supporters have accused Mr Crivella of being swayed by his religious convictions.

In contrast to Eduardo Paes, his party-going predecessor who brought the Olympic Games to Rio, Mr Crivella pointedly stayed away from this year’s parades in the Sambadrome.

Mr Crivella, who regards homosexuality as a sin, will also not finance the city’s Gay Pride parades.

Mr Crivella has denied that his religion has been a factor in the decision to cut funding. “Not at all. It is only to do with the recession that Rio is going through,” he told reporters.

Rio’s annual Carnival festivities are one of the few remaining bright spots in the local economy. Since the closing ceremony of the 2016 Olympics, the city has descended ever deeper into economic chaos.