1706275607
None of the twelve culture ministers since the founding of independent Slovakia has provoked such rapid and strong public opposition as Martina Šimkovičová of the Slovak National Party (SNS) coalition. She celebrated just her 90th day in office on Monday, but over 170,000 people have already signed a petition calling for her resignation. The Slovakian newspaper SME presents its profile.
The minister responded to the petition with a criminal complaint for alleged “obstruction or obstruction of the performance of an important task of an authority.” She did not explain how the petition could hinder the work of her ministry, notes the Slovak daily SME.
In the countries of the European Union there is no known case in which a member of the government would try to question one of the most important democratic institutions – the right to petition and freedom of expression – through the powers of the police and public prosecutor’s office.
Šimkovičová was supported by Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smér-SD) at a government meeting in eastern Slovakia on Tuesday. He asked journalists why the minister should resign from her position and praised her for fulfilling the government’s program.
“Should we organize a petition against young Šimeček, collect 500,000 signatures and say that he should be held responsible?” Fico asked, referring to Michal Šimečka, leader of the opposition movement Progressive Slovakia.
What can be done in three months?
After taking office, Šimkovičová first wrote a difficult-to-understand letter to her Czech counterpart Martin Bax (ODS) about the “predestination of the cradle” of the first Czechoslovak president, Tomáš Garigu Masaryk, who, in her opinion, was born “in the midst of our nations”.
In her new role, she promoted Internet TV Slovan, where she previously worked as a presenter, and now works as a regular guest without a presenter. According to Slovak media, it is a conspiracy medium.
As the daily SME reminds us, Šimkovičová was outraged by the painting of kissing men, while she herself paints naked women in her free time. “A naked woman as such does not offend anyone,” she replied. The minister also stated that she “rejects progressive normalization,” referring to her plan to stop funding LGBTI+ organizations.
When she referred to Austrian Culture Minister Werner Kogler in her Facebook post, she incorrectly identified him as a woman. According to Denník N, Šimkovičová did not meet her Austrian counterpart at all.
The department head also officially renewed the ministry’s cooperation with cultural institutions in Belarus and Russia, which had been suspended in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“The targeted activities of the ministry under your leadership are not systemic, destructive, non-transparent, are carried out exclusively from a position of power, without professional competence and reflection,” the authors of the petition against Šimkovičová explain why they are calling for her to resign.
The minister announced changes to the way the cultural funding funds work so that she could decide which organizations would receive the money. “The ministry’s official communication channels are being abused to spread misleading, discriminatory, homophobic and transphobic content, which goes not only beyond the limits of professional and human ethics, but possibly also beyond the limits of the law,” says the public appeal.
“Harmful organization”
In the petition, more people are calling for the culture minister to resign than the SNS won last year in the elections in which she was nominated for the post. 166,000 Slovaks voted for the party, Šimkovičová received 27,000 preferential votes.
“We did not write in the program that LGBTI comes first, it is not our priority. We don’t want to give money to organizations that cause damage, but to repair monuments,” Fico said Tuesday.
Dušan Jarjabek, a long-time member of the Smér-SD party and member of the culture committee, also defended Šimkovič. “The minister has not yet submitted a bill to parliament. She can be likeable or unsympathetic to someone and that is not enough for me to comment on her work,” he said.
In an interview for SME, Jarjabek explained that in his opinion women in particular do not have to be objective when criticizing the minister. “You are very specific with the minister. “You can see the hatred for them in the eyes of some National Council members,” he described his impression without further explanation.
Even SNS MPs do not doubt Šimkovič’s work. “He definitely knows what he’s doing. He takes part in meetings, communicates with people from the industry and together they develop a vision and a concept,” says Roman Michelko, chairman of the SNS cultural committee. Regarding the call against Šimkovičová, he said that it was a supporter of the opposition, for which the minister was a good target.
Šimkovičová did not clear up the criminal complaint
“I really appreciate the support of the regions, it is binding on me,” Šimkovičová wrote from the government’s away session on the Russian social network Telegram, which she uses. She did not give a reason for her reaction to the public call for her resignation. On Friday it recognized the public’s right to petition against it, but on Monday the Ministry of Culture filed a criminal complaint against the initiative.
According to the ministry, the signatures are manipulation. “The number of voters is constantly increasing, even at night. The number of unidentified votes and duplicate voter addresses is in the thousands,” he claims in response to the call on the petition.com portal.
According to Patrik Kimjan, who runs the similar portal mojapeticia.sk, it often happens that a fraction of people sign the petition twice or that people do not appear under their real identities.
Typically, petition organizers first clean up unconfirmed signatures from the appeal before forwarding it to the relevant authorities. “Even if the current public appeal had two million signatures, of which 1.8 million were signed by the ‘Red Cap’, that doesn’t matter because the public sector, which is the addressee of the signature event, is only interested in the really final thing.” submitted signatures,” he explains.
On Monday, Šimkovičová mocked the challenge when she found a person named Pamela Anderson among the signatories. “Pamela Anderson why did you do this to me, we were friends,” she wrote, attaching photos from the meeting with the American actress. “Friends, don’t let any life situation take away your sense of humor,” she added.
Video: Fico received a well-deserved reward for his pro-Russian rhetoric – a mention in a Russian propaganda program (December 15, 2023)
Fico received a well-deserved reward for his pro-Russian rhetoric – a mention in a Russian propaganda program | Video: Aktuálně.cz
#Slovakian #Minister #Culture #Martina #Šimkovičová