An Open Letter from organizations in the cultural and creative sector, addressed to the prime minister and the entire government, emerged from the Cultural and Creative Federation circle regarding the draft of the so-called State Cultural Policy of the Czech Republic 2026–2030. It makes four demands: withdrawal of the new state cultural policy document; disclosure of information about the implementation of the approved policy (which was created through a participatory process at the end of the previous electoral term under Minister Martin Baxa); disclosure of the process behind preparing the new document; and personal and official accountability for how the new draft was prepared.
While the Czech Ministry of Culture Promoted Bread-Baking, it was baking cultural policy. But Culture Isn't Alone in Its Resistance
On its website, the Czech Ministry of Culture promoted folklore and bread-baking, while over the summer it secretly baked up a new state cultural policy. The cultural community only found out about it when the Czech Chamber of Commerce posted it online for comments. A fairly strong wave of resistance arose and continues, yet the minister has no intention of changing anything and is already negotiating next year's budget. He says culture won't be shortchanged. But which culture? That's the real question.
Jana Bohutínská. Photo: Petr Kurečka.
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The last demand names Barbora Šťastná, press spokesperson and director of the minister's cabinet, who is listed as the author of the new cultural policy draft. Yet in May, Barbora Šťastná had explicitly denied to Taneční aktuality that there were plans to prepare a new state cultural policy (you can read this here).
It wasn't clear exactly when, or at whose instigation, the new document began to be drafted. The ministry has stuck to its communication strategy, one it's followed faithfully since day one under Motoristé sobě's leadership — stay silent, obscure, confuse, and conceal. Only under Act No. 106 on free access to information did it give the Cultural and Creative Federation a general response: "By virtue of her position as head of the cabinet, Barbora Šťastná was tasked with coordinating the preparation of the document at a meeting of the Ministry of Culture's leadership." The public also learned something remarkable from the statement: "The Ministry further states that no special qualification requirement is set for drafting a document of this type." In short, absolutely anyone the minister designates can produce it — a doorman or a press spokesperson, if it comes to that. The full document can be read here.
Eight and a Half Months into His Term
Over Minister of Culture Ota Klempíř's (Motoristé sobě) eight and a half months in office, a pile of things he's stirred up with great energy but never finished has accumulated. He came in with austerity and cuts to grant programs, aiming to build his populist politics on free admission to museums and galleries under the ministry's purview (state museums and galleries, as the ministry frames it). He dismissed the director of the National Gallery, but his office proved unable to run a dignified, successful selection process for new leadership. He's contributing to the destruction of public-service media, which the government's actions and the ambiguity around its financing have plunged into total uncertainty. After the move to the new cultural policy, the minister reports that budget talks for culture in 2027 are going well with Finance Minister Alena Schillerová (ANO). Culture won't be shortchanged, he claims — as if there had been no protests at all — and speaks of increased funding compared to this year. I hope that doesn't shut anyone up. Because for eight and a half months now, it's really been about one single thing: what kind of culture are we actually talking about.
It's about principles and about differing visions of culture. The Motoristé's vision differs from that of those signing the aforementioned Open Letter. What this government emphasizes is different. In its view, culture should be entertaining and joyful, for the people, apolitical, traditional (supporting crafts, folklore), accessible, preferably produced by large organizations that ideally fund themselves as much as possible, that shine abroad, that give people something to be proud of in terms of national identity and confidence. Motoristé politicians at other ministries have boasted (e.g., on the Xaver Live program with Petr Macinka and Filip Turek) about purges in the nonprofit sector, and it would be naive to think culture will be spared. Culture is meant to stay within the boundaries this government — with its centralist and authoritarian tendencies — sets for it. In this, the work of the minister-as-marketer seems consistent to me, from the government's policy statement right up to today. Just as consistent is the gap between his words and reality.
For now, the cultural community is mainly reacting to the agenda set by the ministry's new leadership, pulling on the short end of the rope. If part of the cultural sector is up in arms, that's likely, I fear, a marker of success for Motoristé sobě, ANO, and SPD (recall the labels people from the cultural world have received from them — "do-gooders," parasites, the "Prague café set," freeloaders, and more). It seems this is partly what their voters and fans gave them their votes for — to take down the "do-gooders," that "better liberal-democratic world." These are parties skilled at working their audience, as seen in reactions on social media and especially in ANO's steady support.
Why culture isn't wielding its strength the same way has been a mystery to me since January. Why doesn't it urgently mobilize its supporters, its audience? Why aren't statements read out in theatres directly informing people how things now stand for culture — especially independent culture — despite all the government's claims? Why doesn't the movement go from letters to action in theatres and on the streets? Why don't people in culture move with more force from appeals to the minister toward rethinking what free and independent culture actually means under current conditions? And how willing are they to sacrifice something for culture to be bold and free, rather than state-run and herd-like, as the Ministry of Culture would presumably prefer? Money, even? It's time to turn this around. Searching by every means for the difficult path toward emancipation from the ministry is now just as important — maybe even more important — than continuing to shout at a minister who will never listen, because he already knows what he wants and acts according to the government's plans.
And equally important is joining forces — not just within the cultural sector itself, as the Open Letter managed to do, but also with other parts of civil society — for instance, with people working in environmental protection, an area the government is also gutting, with protests at schools where funding for key humanities education is being cut, such as at Charles University's Faculty of Arts. There are people to connect with and support, people to grow stronger with and build resistance and pressure alongside, people to help raise and keep important issues visible in a public space overwhelmed by the government. There are people to talk to, above all the public — people who envision citizenship differently than admiring Babiš on Lysá hora, applauding "motorhead tough guys" on social media, and their campaign against investigative journalists and the nonprofit sector. Culture is not alone in this. And municipal and Senate elections are approaching.