Cult: Opposition to the NER in Eger, the theater director is replaced

Based on the decision of the majority opposition local assembly, the Géza Gárdonyi Theater in Eger became director: of the seven candidates, the government-dominated professional committee only supported Balázs Blaskó, who had been running the theater for ten years. a renowned director-actor will also be appointed as the new director. Under the new theater law passed in the summer, it acquired rural theaters in part for the government.

Mayor Ádám Mirkóczki is risking half of the theater’s budget, approximately HUF 300 million, which is covered by the state.

The theater of hope

Eger’s theater seems to continue to be one of the most symbolic institutions of the National Cooperation System: in 2010, Balázs Blaskó – husband of a local Fidesz politician – was one of the first theater directors assisted by the NER to power. Thus, the Eger company, which until then had been highly appreciated by the profession, was one of the first, of which a significant part resigned after the election of the director. Blaskó’s sentence also became one of the emblems of the system: he spoke of the need for a “theater of hope” in the face of the prevailing attitude in theaters run by liberal directors.

In the last ten years, the profession has moved away from the theater in Eger – the former leading institution cannot present major awards and invitations to festivals – but Balázs Blaskó has been able to significantly increase the number of tenants. After the municipal elections, which Fidesz, which supported Blaskó, lost in Eger, the director said, recalls the Hungarian orange – do not run for the third time.

But then, under the guise of the coronavirus, the government passed a new theater law that, despite the struggles between Mayor Gergely Karácsony and Fidesz over the maintenance of theaters in Budapest, did not receive as much attention, despite the fact that until then, in theaters purely in the hands of local governments, the government can have a say in the appointment of the director, officially in exchange for state support.

At the same time, the law loosely establishes what happens if there is a conflict of interest between the city administration and the government: this is why Eger’s case has become decisive again. Fidesz and the local lobbyists who continue to support Blasko have just argued with the law, saying that if the mayor refuses to appoint a member of the professional committee, he will have to return around 300 million florins in state aid to Eger. At the same time, Mirkóczki said in a meeting broadcast live on Facebook: this is not true, because according to the law, it is “only” mandatory to renegotiate the maintenance contract signed by the state and local government.

What will be the result of this renegotiation will be revealed in the coming weeks or months.

If you insist, take the state to the theater

At the same time, the board of directors, called the professional committee, is in fact composed on a non-professional basis in the Hungarian system. In this case, the applications of the directors were judged by a committee of nine members to which the local government could delegate two members, the advisory council of the Ministry of Human Resources, the theater arts committee (SZB) four, Emmi one and the theater union two. government with its five bosses only governed the decisions, writes the Hungarian orange. The SZB was previously headed by Attila Vidnyánszky, and today János Zalán, director of the Hungarian Theater in Pest, whose name has been used on several occasions as the newly appointed Vice-Chancellor for Education at the University of Theater and Film Arts. However, the mayor repeatedly said that he had to consult with Attila Vidnyánszky about it.

Ádám Mirkóczki, who was elected mayor in the Unit with the support of the Association for the City, said in his registration on October 28, before the day of the election of the director: the delegates of the general assembly supported the candidacies of two candidates Eger (- Government delegates were “not even interested” in the other candidates, who only considered Blaskó’s candidacy eligible. Mirkóczki therefore offered Emmi that if they insisted on the committee’s decision, they could take over the 100 percent right to keep the theater, but Emmi was not open to the idea of ​​spending more than 250 million guilders a year. Mirkóczki also claimed that Attila Vidnyánszky also told him that it was not good for a city management and the director of a theater could not cooperate well.

Mirkóczki claimed that pro-government party members said that the main argument in favor of Blaskó was that during the pandemic he was the one who provided economic security, but the mayor had allegedly presented documents from the theater’s economics department that he claimed were so chaotic and irregular. that he says there is no such thing.

“Professionally, the best offer was Arturé Szőcs. If we want the good for Eger, it is not a question of what we should do, “said the mayor, who also assured that Blaskó was” creating hysteria “in the theater and knows that he threatens the members of the company and the workers that if there is a new management, many will be fired. Mirkóczki claimed that this explained the company’s petition stating that they wanted to see Blasko still at the head of the theater: the mayor said that a member of the Eger troupe called him and that he and several others had signed the petition out of purely existential fear. .

It’s about culture, not just about culture, art, peace. Eger needs quiet, peace and high-end theater, and we believe this requires a change in theater management.

Mirkóczki said at the meeting, who actually decided to do it the next day after several hours of heated discussion, which Heol also reported on.

They did not know about the coronavirus infection

Another serious detail of the case is related to the coronavirus, which is tragically colored by the fact that the company’s actor, Csaba Kelemen, who also ran for the title of director, died this week from the infection.

Zita Mirkóczki, representative of Eger, said in the registration on October 28 that, according to the law, the theater has an obligation to report cases of coronavirus, which Péter Fekete previously brought to the attention of theater directors, but was not gave notice until the coronavirus appeared in the theater; they only found out from the newspaper. Since then, the General Assembly has learned that from October 10 to 20, 9 people from the theater were quarantined, and then from October 17 to 27, additional members of the association, about whom the public was not informed. General Assembly.

Zita Mirkóczki also made more serious accusations: two of the actors who were ordered to be quarantined took the stage in a children’s performance in Eger during the quarantine.

A Hungarian orange He asked Balázs Blaskó about all this, who sent his information about the case only after the publication of his article. Blaskó assures that neither the infected patient nor his family indicated their status, the patient was not in the theater during the period in question, so Blaskó did not know that he would have to quarantine the actor’s contacts, and for the moment he managed do it after a long phone call. To find out, the ten-day period has already passed. And he adds: “The decision ordering the quarantine from October 10 to 20 was received on October 20, 2020.”

Likewise, it stated that it had acted in accordance with the communication protocol issued by the Ministry of Culture of Culture of the Emmi to cultural institutions on the obligation to inform, according to which it should only inform if the theater was forced to close or “restrict its operation ”, but in his case there was no doubt.

Either way, the general board finally decided on the new director by taking roll. Balázs Blaskó’s proposal was rejected with 7 votes in favor and 10 against, and Artur Szőcs with 10 in favor, 6 against and one abstention.