May 1st

Dear Minister Dr Asta Vrečko,

we had a bonfire yesterday. In a wonderful place among the Dolenjska hills, in a brick house built by my dear's parents and beautifully renovated by her brother, a prominent Slovenian actor, and his dear, an exceptional filmmaker. It was great company, including friends and neighbours. It was a beautiful day, you could see far, even further from Trdinov vrh on one side and to Snežnik on the other side.

It was yesterday, the celebration of a holiday that affects us all not only in our existence, but also in the thoughts, plans, wishes and upheavals of Slovenian cultural policy. Today is a new day and requires consideration.

May 1st is Labor Day. In fact, we all work, so this is our joint holiday. Another question is what this work looks like. In today's context, I return to the old thought of the great Socrates: wealth does not beget virtue, but virtue begets wealth. Prioritizing financial and political power over values is a crucial error that first buries values and then capital. This has partially been shown several times in history, but it will finally be confirmed if we only succeed in waging a third world war. The values we hold are universal and a bulwark against destruction.

Our efforts for a better Slovenian culture are thus a stone in the mosaic of world events. They are important not only because of the wider context, but also because of us. Because of our national existence and sovereignty. As Günter Verheugen, the European Commissioner for Enlargement twenty years ago, said in an interview with Maja Derčar, RTV Slovenia, a few days ago: For me, Slovenia is a European pearl, a kind of center of Europe where different cultures meet.

A center where different cultures meet, often also non-European ones, the Seviqc programme has been developing and consolidating all the time, ever since 1982. Unfortunately, the dandies, who decide on the means for our existence, do not understand this very well, but they consider themselves very smart. The rare positive side of these assessments is bridging the differences between the political right and the political left. Expert commissions are a field where political differences fade, where personal traumas, sancta simplicitas and imagined expertise prevail over actual expertise and a realistic evaluation of the significance of the projects submitted. The difference may be that Minister Simoniti reacted sharply (https://www.seviqc.si/sporocila, 12/02/2022, Response of the Ministry of Culture to Klemno Ramovš's open letter) when I asked the University of Ljubljana how they award doctorates. Three of the five members were proud of this title, and only one of the current seven members of the commission has it. Therefore, a similar question would be less relevant. The commission's confrontation with the applicants would have revealed its expertise, and perhaps this is precisely why Minister Peršak withdrew the right to defence with a decree and cynical argumentation, while judicial practice happily followed the illegal act.

In its programme for the 2022 National Assembly elections, the Left Party has written down some important ambitions, among other things:

• culture and art must not be subject to the interests of the respective authorities or left to the market,

• the second task is to establish a dialogue, regulate the area of the non-governmental sector and the self-employed in culture,

• the Ministry of Culture must become a protector and ally of culture, an interlocutor of all actors in the field of culture, it must create conditions for the quality and steady development of all genres of culture and artistic activity.

That is why we accepted the appointment of the Minister of Culture from the Left quota with satisfaction and enthusiasm. Unfortunately, the latest evaluations of the expert commission depart from these principles, and so does the minister who defends such a commission.

Our efforts for the necessary changes are currently on two fronts, and I certainly hope that you, as the Slovenian Minister of Culture, will support them. I didn't call you Joan of Arc in individual records just off the top of my head. By this I did not mean her worldview definition, which is far from today's Left, but the encouragement she gave the French army to resist the occupier. Likewise, I still believe that Dr Asta Vrečko defeats or at least silences the lobbies who have a great personal benefit from the misguided approach to cultural policy. I mean both lobbies within the ministry and external interest influences.

The first is the establishment of an administrative model that will ensure compliance with Article 75 of the ZUJIK. There is complete anarchy here now when the content is named differently than it is. Regarding this, at the meeting of the Initiative for Culture and the summit of the Ministry of Culture on 22 November last year, we had the same views, and I hope that the Ministry will settle this matter with the new legislation.

The second is the right to defence, where we were at the meeting of different opinions. Even on my appeal to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, the Ministry has different interpretations than ours. If legislation and case law are in dispute, the law must be amended. In fact, the current situation violates both the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia and Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It is completely unacceptable that with such inadequate evaluations of the expert commission, as you can read at https://www.seviqc.si/sporocila, the applicant does not have the opportunity to make his comments even before the decision is issued. This one is final. The only way is the Administrative Court of the Republic of Slovenia, which is expensive, slow, and ineffective, because the court only returns it for a new decision after one or more years. The administrative court decides only on the procedural side, but not on the content, which is an important component of the application. Although it is typical for tenders that nothing is determined before confirmation, producers also make money from received subsidies. If the assessment was correct, everything would be fine even without the possibility of a defence. We are not so commercial that even without subsidies we could implement cultural programmes in Slovenia and compete with the increasingly demanding European scene. Not only the existence of projects, but also the existence of applicants depends on the tenders received. And when they cut your projects one after the other, they also cut you.

Simplified, it happens like in a story: someone was sentenced to death. The court judged according to its narrow mind. The convicted person had no opportunity to defend himself, to explain that it is not as the court says. The death sentence was carried out. There were no more problems. It's similar here, only gradually. Native American death: slow and painful. We'll be gone soon, too, if something doesn't change.

Dear Minister,

if you in Levica were serious about establishing a dialogue and regulating the area of the non-governmental sector, and I hope you are, I will be happy about your efforts in this direction. I will definitely be happy if we manage things here, within the Ministry of Culture and the National Assembly, and we do not need to publish a petition, which is already coordinated with the Initiative for Culture and the European Center in Berlin and which certainly will not contribute to the greater reputation of the Republic of Slovenia. In a way, Ukraine and Gaza are happening not only there, but also here.

I wish you a nice holiday and, sincerely with the best wishes, that you continue what you started,

With respect

Klemen Ramovš