Cult: Despite the decision of the opposition’s self-government in Eger, the government withdrew its will from the theater

Although Eger’s majority-opposition local government made the decision at its October 29 meeting to appoint Artur Szőcs to head the local government-operated Géza Gárdonyi Theater, Mayor Ádám Mirkóczki told hvg.hu that this decision was in effect. despite the local majority and his own will. he must be expelled and forced to reappoint the government-backed director-director, Balázs Blaskó, who has been running the theater for ten years.

I cannot assess the situation except that Balázs Blaskó was not appointed by the Eger General Assembly to direct the Gárdonyi Géza Theater, but by the Ministry of Human Resources, which exerted financial pressure to do so.

This was stated by Mirkóczki, who was elected mayor of hvg.hu with the support of the Association for the Association of the City.

The case, which was first reported by Egriügyek.hu, goes beyond the Eger theater: this is the first case that revealed how the new performing arts law passed by the government in the spring, in addition to measures by the coronavirus epidemic, must be interpreted in practice. which is quite vague about the cooperation between government and local governments.

It was not included in the law of the original proposal that the ministry had a veto on the election of directors, only that it required an “agreement” between the government and the city administration, which many theater directors saw as a friendly gesture, instead of a national gesture. as a nationalization unprecedented since the regime change. However, Eger’s example shows:

in fact, it is already the government that decides on the director of municipal theaters, not only by the power of law, but by the power of money.

Go against the government? It hurts 600 million

The new Performing Arts Law put a new practice in a new framework: the budgets of theaters, formerly called municipal, have so far been supported in part by local government and in part by the state, since the constitutional task of the state is to promote culture. and local governments have never received such broad support from state coffers since the regime change to accommodate the full maintenance of a theater, which can run to a billion items.

However, in the spring, Fidesz justified the new law on the grounds that if local governments continue to “ask the government for help” to maintain their theaters, it is “natural” that they have certain rights in return, adding that this is not required. municipal self-determination, only then will they no longer receive an iron. Thus, it was included in the law that “in an agreement for the operation of theaters, the Minister and the municipality will establish, including the form of appointment of the manager, the detailed rules for the joint operation and operation of the theater.”

Which is quite permissive wording. Interpretation is of utmost importance only in the case of a city led by the opposition, where, in addition, there is a conflict of interest between the municipality and the state. This is the first time this has happened in Eger, and

The government immediately sent a message to all opposition municipalities in the country: there can be no compromise.

At the October 29 meeting of the Eger municipality it was already known that the Mirkóczki family’s decision was risky, and the contract that all rural towns, such as Eger, had signed with the Ministry of Human Resources (Emmi) had to be renegotiated . What was at stake was: whether the ministry would accept Mirkóczki’s arguments about why the local government had decided against the recommendation of a committee called the professions, which was in fact dominated by government appointments, or whether it should repay the subsidy approximately HUF 300 million. the city and whether to say goodbye to the same amount for next year.

“During the past year, I have supported Emmi in a fair and committed way; It saddens me that this is not coming back at all now. The last two weeks have been in constant negotiation, compromise solutions have emerged, but then the ministry has made an effort and

He claimed that it is a breach of contract, so the city will cost 600 million guilders if Balázs Blaskó does not become director.

Due to the amounts withdrawn by the government, the city already has less than one thousand five hundred million florins, and by losing that amount we would run the risk of not being able to perform such mandatory tasks as nurseries, nurseries, the social security system or the operation of transport public. In fact, we have no room for maneuver, ”says Mirkóczki.

In the case, we also sent our questions to the Ministry about why a compromise decision could not be reached or if the outcome of the case was not deemed problematic, but all that was answered was:

We recommend contacting the city administration, as the Ministry of Human Resources does not have the power to override any municipal decision.

The history

As we already reported in our previous article, Balázs Blaskó is a symbolic man of the theatrical politics of Fidesz: Blaskó, the husband of an actress politicized in Fidesz in the city hall, was one of the first theater directors helped to power by the NER and so far valued by the profession. a large part of the company resigned; It is also accompanied by the emblematic phrase of the NER “on the theater of hope”. Under his direction, the Gárdonyi Géza Theater did not achieve professional success, but the number of tickets sold increased.

At the end of October, Mirkóczki said that according to his information from the economic department of the theater, the economic situation in the theater was chaotic and even spoke of illegality. He said that, as far as he knew, Blaskó had threatened the theater staff with a new direction to clean up the theater, so the director did not guarantee that there would be peace and a high standard of artistic life in Eger if he was re-elected. The mayor also said that the theater had to be quarantined several times due to the coronavirus (one of the company’s actors, Csaba Kelemen, died of the infection), but no one informed the municipality about the decree, and two of they even took the stage during the quarantine. ; Blaskó said this, the patient or his family had not informed him of the infection, and the government office only arrived late, informing him of the quarantine order, when it had already expired and the conferences had dropped.

Since then, Csaba Kelemen’s widow has asked Balázs Blaskó in an open letter not to appear at her husband’s funeral.

since he did not visit him “neither expressing condolences nor offering assistance,” despite the fact that he was a civil servant for 31 years, then director and director of his last performance, he wrote.

Mirkóczki previously said that in his opinion it was “clear” that Arturé Szőcs, a well-known actor-director of the Comedy Theater and the National Theater of Miskolc, had the highest professional standards among the applications submitted for directors, so his choice it would be in Eger’s interests. The members delegated to the technical committee by the Commission “were not even interested” in the other applications, “came with a mandate” to vote for Blasko and did not really support any other candidate.

By the way, Mirkóczki had previously offered EMMI, if they insisted on appointing Balázs Blaskó, to take over the maintenance of the entire theater, but the government refused to do so.

The knife broke

“It is very hostile, unfair and sad that the city government elected by the Eger majority cannot have a say in the election of the director of an Eger institution,” the mayor summarized for hvg.hu. On the question of why a joint maintenance agreement was signed with the government, he said:

It sounded good that decisions should be based on consensus, but they said they meant they had to agree: if I don’t agree, it doesn’t matter.

At the same time, the mayor said that the local government tasks related to the theater had not yet been completed, as it had previously been voted in agreement with local Fidesz representatives that the theater would become a non-profit company Ltd in accordance with the law that abolished the status of civil servants. There is still work to do.

After the decision, Balázs Blaskó told the Eger News portal: “An explicit professional decision was made, since the decision taken by the professional committee on October 7 was confirmed by the ministry”, in which “the mayor has now settled “, The near future of the theater”.

Sándor Oroján, leader of the Fidesz-KDNP faction in Eger, congratulated Balázs Blaskó on Facebook, adding that it was a symbolic matter that he broke Mirkóczki’s knife.

Eger’s theater had to be protected and we did

Oroján said. However, he no longer added what has also emerged now: that the new theater law provides a great opportunity for the government to protect many more rural theaters with it.