RESISTANCE NOW: FREE CULTURE –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ open letter to the European Parliament

Dear Members of the European Parliament,
Dear President of the Parliament, Ms. Metsola,
Dear Chair of the Committee on Culture and Education, Ms. Nela Riehl,

We, cultural institutions and artists from across Europe, are alarmed by current cultural policy developments in various EU member states. While the Hungarian cultural sector has already been largely brought into line through new media laws and budget cuts, politically motivated layoffs are currently taking place in Slovakia – to name only the dismissals of the directors of the National Theatre and the National Gallery. The attacks on artistic freedom have reached an almost absurd level in many member states: at the National Theater of Sofia, a play over 100 years old, set in a fictitious Bulgaria, was performed without an audience in its first opening night due to attacks from ultranationalist circles, who physically prevented the viewers to enter the building of the theatre. In Austria, the right-wing nationalist Freedom Party (FPÖ) is threatening to cut funding for “woke” culture – which simply means all culture beyond local music organizations – while in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders' “Freedom Party”, in France the Rassemblement National and in Germany the AfD are pushing for radical cuts in funding for all cultural institutions and efforts that are not “traditional” and “national”. These cuts have already been implemented in many areas, according to the logic that what has been destroyed will not recover quickly.

We are aware that one of the principles of the European Union is not to intervene in the cultural policies of its various member states, but only to support them in “crises and unexpected challenges”, as stated in the EU Strategic Framework for Culture. So let us be clear: culture in Europe is facing just such a crisis. For many months, even years, and in some member states even for a whole decade, cultural institutions have been subjected to a political campaign that restricts freedom of expression and artistic freedom and eliminates everything that does not conform to the political line of right-wing conservative, nationalist party alliances through cuts or bans. These are no random cuts, but betray an orchestrated cultural-political strategy aimed at the disappearance of a diverse European culture that has grown since 1989. “Brussels should lose political significance,” is how the ‘Vienna Declaration’, which Herbert Kickl and Viktor Orbán, the leaders of the two strongest Central European right-wing parties, recently signed, sums it up. Because let's not be deceived: where open, non-partisan, cross-border culture disappears, the European unification and peace project itself will eventually disappear as well.

In view of this, we call on you to address the current developments in the EU member states in the European Parliament and to finally take an explicit stand. Important areas of European culture and transnational cooperation have already disappeared in the face of radical re-nationalization, and important cultural institutions have been filled with compliant bureaucrats - or starved to death - in many countries. In the face of looming cuts, we see self-censorship, fear and depression spreading. We therefore stand in solidarity with artists who have been dismissed or obstructed in their work, and with cultural institutions across Europe that are threatened with closure or have already been closed. Violently preventing a premiere from taking place in front of an audience, as happened in Sofia, is a more than clear warning that too many red lines have already been crossed.

We ask you to address the acute threat to a consistent European cultural policy and to speak out clearly about the attacks, bans, layoffs and cutbacks in the individual EU member states, We must build on the solidarity already shown by thousands of artists and arts organisations across Europe in condemning these brazen attacks on artistic freedom, and in using the power of international networks to multiply potential solutions. Both the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the EU’s Work Plan for Culture 2023-2026 demand protection for artistic freedom. We urge Member States and European institutions to fulfil their responsibilities to these documents – and provide even more safeguards by implementing a ‘European Culture Freedom Act’ as part of the Rule of Law.

Not only the reputation, but the existence of European culture in its diversity is at risk. Europe is based on the openness of the cultural life of the individual countries and their free cooperation. If these disappear, the European project loses its soul and meaning.

Please act! It is not too late!

Yours sincerely,

Milo Rau & Artemis Vakianis (Directors, Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) | Free Republic of Vienna, Austria & Member of Prospero – Extended Theatre)

Matej Drlička (Dismissed Director Slovak National Theatre, Slovakia, Member of ETC and Member Opera Europa)

Vasil Vasilev (General Director National Theatre Ivan Vazov, Bulgaria & Member of ETC and Prospero)

Cláudia Belchior & Heidi Wiley (President & Executive Director, European Theatre Convention –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ETC)

Serge Rangoni (General Director Théâtre de Liège, Member of ETC & Lead Member of Prospero – Extended Theatre)

Karen Stone (General Director Opera Europa)

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