Thousands of people took to the streets of the Slovakian capital on Monday and Tuesday to protest against the country’s culture ministry, which axed the heads of the Slovak National Theater and National Gallery (SNG) last week.
The crowds claimed that the dismissals are a political purge by Robert Fico’s populist left-wing Smer-SSD party, which won parliamentary elections in Slovakia in October and formed a coalition government with the center-left Hlas and nationalist SNS parties.
Alexandra Kusá, who was sacked from her job as general director of the SNG last Wednesday, told ARTnews that the Slovak culture minister, Martina Šimkovičová, “fabricated” the reasons for her departure. Matej Drlička was fired as the head of Slovakia’s National Theater last Tuesday. He said Šimkovičová used an old accusation he had “already paid” to get rid of him.
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Drlička told ARTnews that as soon as Šimkovičová was appointed in October, “we realized we were entering a new culture war.”
Šimkovičová, a former TV presenter, has mocked refugees on social media and publicly criticized homosexuals. Many people say she is not qualified for the job of culture minister.
Kusá said 9,000 people demonstrated in front of the National Theater and culture ministry in Bratislava’s city center on Monday. She addressed the crowds on stage alongside Drlička. “I’m usually an introvert but I felt I needed to tell the people what happened,” she told ARTnews. “It was emotional.”
Many of the protesters held banners. One read in English, “GO FUCK YOURSELF,” which was likely aimed at Šimkovičová or Fico – or both politicians. Another read, “FREEDOM AND NOTHING ELSE” in Slovakian.
Open Culture! Platform, an independent civic group that was formed in January to “protect culture in Slovakia from the destructive actions of politicians,” it says, organized the march on Monday. In a statement, it said more than 120 cultural institutions joined the protest from all over Slovakia. “The cultural community and the general public are responding to the devastating actions of the ministry of culture,” Open Culture! Platform said. “The ministry, led by Martina Šimkovičová, first adopted harmful legislative changes that undermined the years-built supporting pillars of Slovak independent culture, public media, and the management of museums and galleries.”
Kusá and Drlička were joined on stage by Slovak writer Michal Hvorecký, actress Jana Oľhová, and several other prominent figures from the country’s cultural scene.
Katarína Mišíková from Open Culture! Platform told ARTnews that the group was set up after a petition was signed by 180,000 people demanding Šimkovičová steps down. She described it as the “biggest petition campaign in the history of Slovakia.”
“Drlička and Kusá were dismissed because they are not people connected to the people from the culture ministry or from the Slovak national party,” Mišíková said. “We are currently dealing with such an arrogance of power, it is surprising, even to the people who have been struggling for democracy for the last 30 years. In normal circumstances, such an incompetent and aggressive minister of culture, who is turning the ministry against the cultural community, would be forced to step down immediately. Šimkovičová is spreading hate speech and neo-fascist opinions but she’s still in her position. So, it’s hard to be optimistic.”
Open Culture! Platform is demanding that Šimkovičová and the general secretary of the culture minstry’s service office, Lukáš Machala, quit their positions. It warns that it “will escalate its civil resistance within legal possibilities” if this does not happen.
On Tuesday, 18,000 people reportedly protested in Bratislava against the culture ministry and the release of Slovak lawyer and former military prosecutor Dušan Kováčik from prison. He was found guilty of corruption in 2021 and sentenced to 14 years in jail. The demonstration was organized by the liberal opposition party Progressive Slovakia.
“Today 18,000 protestors, the General Union Organization supports us,” Drlička, the recently sacked director of the Slovak National Theater, told ARTnews on WhatsApp, alongside a video of a huge chanting crowd. “Over 100 insitutions signed the manifest. Several universities joined the fight. It’s going well so far.”
The Slovak culture ministry did not reply to ARTnews’s request for comment.
On Tuesday, more than 150 cultural figures from across Europe signed an open letter opposing the dismissals of Kusá and Drlička. “This decision has undermined the independence of the cultural field in your country and damaged the trust in and reputation of Slovak culture internationally,” it reads. Its supporters include Adam Budak, director of Kestner Gesellschaft in Hannover, Sebastian Cichocki, chief curator at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, and Vesna Mestric, director of Zagreb’s Museum of Contemporary Art.
Šimkovičová, the Slovak culture minister, posted a video on YouTube on Tuesday. She did not directly mention the protests but reiterated her reasons for firing the two directors, saying, “no one’s job is set in stone.”