Cultural and sports mass events and masses will be allowed in the end. (source: TASR)
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Several cultural organisations are struggling to survive due to the coronavirus pandemic and measures adopted to contain the infection.
To draw attention to their problems, they are planning a protest for October 14 that will take place on SNP Square at 17:00. It is organised by the Association of Music Clubs of Slovakia (AHKS), the Association of Music Promoters in Slovakia, and the Music Union of Slovakia, who promise to keep the event safe.
“We’ll try to demonstrate for our rights and the attention of respective state officials in a calm and cultured way,” the organisers wrote on Facebook. As it is an apolitical event, the organisers do not want any politicians and political movements to attend.
An open letter sent
Meanwhile, the representatives of cultural organisations sent an open letter to PM Igor Matovič (OĽaNO), criticising his approach to the problems in culture and asking him to start dealing with their problems.
As they pointed out, as many as 220,000 people are working in the culture and creative industry, which represents some 9 percent of workers. About one-third of them have seen their work drop by more than 80 percent in the past seven months, and in some fields the fall was as high as 90 percent, the SITA newswire reported.
While entrepreneurs and natural people received aid from the state, most representatives of culture were omitted, they continued.
“Most companies don’t have any branches that would apply to the aid,” the letter reads, as quoted by SITA. “Most people in our sector work as the self-employed, but those who received the aid could not cover even the payroll taxes which they now have to pay up.”
The representatives of culture hope that explaining their situation will help understand the complexity of their problem and contribute to quick solutions.
They also stressed that the problem does not fall only under the Culture Ministry, claiming it exceeds its powers. Thus, it needs to be solved by the entire government, SITA reported.
