Next year’s Rio Carnival is under threat over drastic budget cuts by the city’s new Evangelical mayor, who has been accused of acting on his conservative religious views.

Marcelo Crivella is a gospel singer and evangelical bishop who took office in January on a platform that included a promise to maintain financial support to the Carnival.

But he has since halved public funding for each of Rio’s 13 leading samba schools, who now say the budget cuts make it financially unviable to organise next year’s parades.