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Miami (AFP) – Disney sued Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Wednesday, accusing him of political “retaliation” after a board appointed by him annulled agreements that gave the entertainment giant control over the expansion of its amusement park in the state. .
DeSantis and the company fell out last year when Disney criticized a Republican-sponsored law that prohibits teaching issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida elementary schools.
In retaliation for that criticism, the governor appointed a board in February to run a special district given to Disney in the 1960s at its Orlando amusement park, which the company ran as a local government.
“A targeted campaign of government revenge – orchestrated at every turn by Governor DeSantis as punishment for Disney’s speech – now threatens Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region and violates its constitutional rights,” the statement said. company in its lawsuit filed in a north Florida federal court.
The move by Disney, which employs more than 75,000 people in the state, comes after the DeSantis-appointed board on Wednesday annulled agreements signed by the company just before it ceded control of the special district.
With that move, Disney made sure it didn’t need board approval to build buildings in the district or cede acreage rights, as well as prohibit new managers from using the company’s name or characters.
The documents included a clause guaranteeing their validity until “21 years after the death of the last surviving descendant of King Charles III” of England. DeSantis, whose run for the White House appears imminent, had vowed to void those agreements and threatened to raise the company’s taxes or impose safety inspections.
The 44-year-old rising star of the American right has become known with his cultural battles against politicians, professors and companies like Disney, whom he accuses of imposing a progressive ideology on others.
In its lawsuit, the company requests that the laws that stripped it of control of the special district be made illegal, alleging that they were “enacted in retaliation for Disney’s political speech in violation of the First Amendment,” which protects free speech.
“The company has no choice but to bring this lawsuit to protect its members, customers and local partners from a relentless campaign to use the power of government as a weapon against Disney,” the company said in the court document.
“In the United States, the government can’t punish you for speaking your mind,” he added.
Disney has announced plans to invest more than $17 billion in Disney World over the next decade, a move that it forecasts will create more than 10,000 new jobs and attract even more tourists to Florida.
