“There’s a sheriff in town again” : Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sounded jubilant on Monday, Feb. 27, when he signed the law ending Disney privileges. Since 1967, the group enjoyed a special status allowing it to govern alone the huge Disneyworld estate, near Orlando. “Today, the corporate realm is finally coming to an end”said the probable candidate for the Republican primary for the presidential election of 2024.
Mr. DeSantis has been waging a culture war against the company for months, accused of woke and progressive drift. In multiple tweets, the governor is happy to force the company to comply with Florida state building and safety regulations, pay its taxes and no longer have preferential treatment. Above all, he put an end to the quasi-extraterritoriality enjoyed by the park, which was opened to the public in 1971: he thus appointed a council of five people to oversee the site, whereas these personalities had until now been chosen by Disney. Its president will be Martin Garcia, boss of a Tampa investment company and Republican donor. Mr. DeSantis also named Bridget Ziegler, co-founder of the conservative group Moms for Liberty.
The move marks the end of an era for the recreation and entertainment group, which acquired 11,000 acres of marshland in the early 1960s right next to Orlando airport. The goal of the founder, Walt Disney, was to build an amusement park similar to Disneyland in Anaheim, near Los Angeles, but to add golf courses, hotels and leisure facilities galore. In short, a huge city in the heart of Florida.
“The challenge is democracy”worried, at the time with Walt Disney, Paul Helliwell, a lawyer from Miami, former CIA turned consultant for Disney, tell it wall street journal. A challenge successfully met: the company then negotiated with the State of Florida a status of quasi-independence on its land. The deal was concluded in the wake of Walt Disney’s untimely death in 1966.
Disney “ready to work in this new framework”
This status is now over, and Disney has no choice but to accept the new law: “We are looking to the future and ready to work in this new environment”, had made known the company during the vote of the law at the beginning of February. This shift marks a new step in the culture war waged by Mr. DeSantis against the Democratic left.
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