ORLANDO — Disney and a board elected by Ron DeSantis reached an agreement this Wednesday on the management of the area that houses the company’s amusement park in florida, thus ending the dispute between the entertainment giant and the governor that began in 2022.
“I think with this agreement, which is comprehensive and significant, we are looking forward to working with Disney,” Charbel Barakat, vice chairman of the board, said after announcing the news during a meeting.
The company and DeSantis fell out after Disney criticized a Florida law that prohibits teaching issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity in the early grades in schools in the US state in order to protect children.
Following those comments, DeSantis appointed a board to run the special district granted to Disney in the 1960s at its theme park near Orlando, which the company ran as a local government, a business advantage that other companies do not have.
“This bill takes an old district, modernizes it and brings it up to date,” said Republican Rep. Fred Hawkins, sponsor of the legislative bill. “It eliminated the rights that no corporation should have to be able to build or have an unfair competitive advantage over its competitors,” the legislator said in May 2023.
What the new agreement says
This Wednesday’s agreement annuls some provisions signed by the company just before ceding control of the district. With that move, Disney then ensured that it would not need board approval to build buildings in the area or give up surface rights.
In response, the board went to state court, sparking the now-resolved legal dispute.
“We are pleased to end all litigation pending in Florida state courts between Disney and the Central Florida Tourism Supervision District,” Jeff Vahle, president of Walt Disney World, said in a statement.
The agreement “serves the interests of all parties by allowing for significant continued investment and the creation of thousands of direct and indirect jobs” in the state, he added.
An unresolved dispute
DeSantis and Disney, which employs more than 75,000 people in Florida, still have an open legal front in federal court.
The company recently appealed a court ruling that dismissed a lawsuit filed against the governor, accusing him of acting out of political “revenge.”
But Disney asked to postpone that case pending new negotiations with the board, the latter announced at Wednesday’s meeting.
Jeff Vahle, president of Walt Disney World Resort, said in a statement Wednesday that the company was pleased to have reached an agreement.
“This agreement opens a new chapter of constructive engagement with the district’s new leaders and serves the interests of all parties by allowing for significant continued investment and the creation of thousands of direct and indirect jobs and economic opportunities in the state,” Vahle said.
DeSantis, who was in Orlando on Wednesday, said at a news conference that “we have been vindicated in all of those actions.”
Disney also agreed to suspend an appeal pending negotiations on the development agreement and will drop a public records lawsuit against the district it filed in state court.
DeSantis, who withdrew from the Republican primaries in January, has accused Democratic politicians and companies such as Disney of imposing their progressive ideology.
Source: With information from AFP
