The cultural law will create a transparent operating model, a crystal clear and predictable situation, and transparent spheres of responsibility in the operation of theatres.

Also in the future, local governments will be free to decide whether they wish to operate theatres of their own as a voluntary responsibility, and if so whether they wish to operate them as purely municipal or mixed (state and municipal) institutions. This will create a perfectly clear situation: the operator is responsible for the operation of the theatre. Municipal theatres will operate from municipal funding, state theatres will operate from state funding, while theatres in mixed operation will operate from state and municipal funding. We also firmly believe that sexual harassment cases such as the Gothár scandal cannot be left without consequences.

The opposition’s propaganda is based on the usual fabrication of fake news. It is a lie that metropolitan theatres will have to shut down. Should it choose to do so, the capital is free to operate even theatres of its own completely independently, undertaking all operating rights that go with the operation of theatres. Theatres owned by the metropolitan municipality only cease to exist if the Metropolitan General Assembly decides that it no longer wishes to operate them.

Also to date, Hungary’s central budget has provided generous and continuously rising grants for cultural institutions, in particular for theatres. The purpose of the cultural bill now submitted to Parliament is to ensure that public funds are used in a transparent manner, and to create absolutely clear spheres of responsibility. The fact alone that recently the suspicion of abuses of a criminal, non-financial nature has emerged in theatres operated from both state and municipal funding warrants the clarification of the relevant spheres of responsibility.

The proposed legislation does not in any way change the mandatory and voluntary tasks of municipalities either in culture or in any other field. Theatres can be operated by municipalities as a responsibility undertaken on a voluntary basis, by the state, or in a mixed arrangement, with mixed – municipal and state – funding, and the operator’s rights, too, would be split accordingly.

The funds necessary for the operation of theatres run by municipalities will be by provided by municipalities from their own budgets. If a municipality is unable to comprehensively provide the funding necessary for the operation of a municipality-run theatre, the municipality can submit a request to the government for the joint operation of the institution. In this case, the minister and the municipality enter into an agreement on joint operation within 30 days. As part of the joint operation of the institution, the state will provide funding in a more predictable and plannable manner, and will also provide for the pay rises of the institution’s staff.

Just as before, theatres operated by the state and jointly-operated theatres will be able to expect predictable financial grants to be laid down in agreements. These agreements will also guarantee the artistic freedom of jointly-operated theatres.

The funds necessary for the operation of state-run theatres are provided by the central budget. This means that the state and the ministry will not in any way interfere in the operation of a metropolitan theatre operated and funded by the Metropolitan Municipality. As a result, not only will the independence of municipalities not be curtailed, but it will in actual fact increase.

As the Ministry already stated before, the National Cultural Fund will likewise not be abolished. This year, Hungary has spent more than HUF 125 billion on sponsoring performing arts. The central budgetary grants available for the operation of municipality-run theatres and independent theatres – whose number has been on the increase for years – are rising continuously. Within the next few days, we will transfer the third instalment of the performing arts excess grants for metropolitan theatres, a sum of almost HUF 1.2 billion. Compared with last year, over and above state grants, metropolitan theatres have received HUF 526 million more performing arts excess grants in total, while permanent national and special-status theatres mostly in the countryside have been able to use a 20 per cent higher excess grant allocation.

(MTI)