A civil protest for defence of culture took place in Bratislava on Monday, August 12. According to the police estimate, 9,000 people participated. The protest, organized by the Open Culture! platform was called after the dismissal of Slovak National Theatre director Matej Drlička and director of the Slovak National Gallery Alexandra Kusá on August 6. Next speaking is Alexandra Kusá, who was one of the protest participants.
"I would very much like to assure you that Matej and I are not here because we cling to our positions. We came because we want these positions to belong to people who are competent. We think that this is the absolute minimum that we, but also all taxpayers, can demand,” said Kusá.
The protesters emphasized that SNS should not be in charge of culture and demanded the resignation of the Culture Minister Martina Šimkovičová and the Ministry’s Chief-of-Staff Lukáš Machala. On Monday, several representatives of the cultural community discussed the steps of the Culture Ministry and the state of culture in Slovakia at the new Slovak National Theatre building. Slovak National Gallery former director Kusá, the director of the Slovak Arts Council Róbert Špoták and the economic director of Slovak National Theatre Matej Bošňák spoke in the debate. Also on Monday, a meeting was held at the Culture Ministry regarding the Slovak National Theatre situation, but according to Bošňák, things did not move forward in the debate.
Source: STVR
