Slovakia purges heads of national theatre and gallery in ‘arts crackdown’

9 comments

1. >Fico returned to power for a fourth spell as prime minister last October, governing in a coalition with the nationalist SNS and the centre-left Hlas parties after his scandal-hit Smer party won parliamentary elections on the back of pledges to halt military aid to Ukraine.

   >The 59-year-old politician made his first public appearance last month since surviving an assassination attempt on 15 May, giving a speech in which he criticised the supposed expansion of progressive ideologies and the west’s stance towards Russia.

   >One of his most divisive appointees has been the SNS culture minister Šimkovičová, 52, a former TV presenter whose media career was ended over anti-refugee posts on social media and who was nominated for “homophobe of the year” by the Slovak human rights institute Inštitút ľudských práv in 2018.

   >One of Šimkovičová’s first actions in her post was to resume cultural links with Moscow, suspended after Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

   >She has since dismissed the board of the Slovak Fund for the Promotion of the Arts, a body designed to allow cultural organisations to apply for funding without having to go directly to the ministry, as well as withdrawing funding for Bratislava’s brutalist House of Culture and firing the heads of the National Library and children’s museum Bibiana.

   >Her bill to dissolve the public service broadcaster RTVS and replace it with a new entity under full control of the government sparked mass protests in June.

   Doing Russia’s bidding…

2. she is a disgrace to our whole country…bunch of pro-russian primitives that didnt even receive majority of votes

3. Welcome to the dark side szomszéd.

4. After a petition to have her removed she conceded that everyone has the right to an opinion and she would be suing everyone who signed.

   Not sure what came of that brainfart.

5. Crazy ass bitch hoax peddler lady appointed minister of culture… how typical of the ficoid mafiosos

6. Help me count how many scandalist pricks are in the governent so far:

   * Robert Fico
   * Martina Šimkovičová
   * …

7. *“The minister claims that she is restoring normalcy to Slovakia,” said Sybera.*

   I cannot not see the irony of this in the light of the period of Normalization in Communist Czechoslovakia after the Soviets knocked down the Prague Spring

8. The Best of all is that our nationalist and patriotic Simkovicova is not even living in Slovakia, but in Austria (Kittsee)

9. So are Slovaks actually supporting this? I mean, I know this party was voted in, but elections happen for reasons outside of stuff like this.