Home » News » Vilnītis would not oppose the return of the Liepāja Theater owned by the municipality to the state – Society and Politics – News

Vilnītis would not oppose the return of the Liepāja Theater owned by the municipality to the state – Society and Politics – News

He himself believes that all theaters in Latvia should operate under the auspices of the state. However, the possible transfer of the Liepaja Theater to the state should first be resolved through negotiations.

“If it [pašvaldības kapitālsabiedrības statuss] is the reason why the view of Liepaja Theater is different, then definitely the council should make a decision. I can express my opinion: in my opinion, all theaters should be state theaters, “said Vilnitis.

At the same time, the mayor of Liepaja acknowledged that the municipality had taken proper care of the theater for more than a decade, increasing its financial support, but this year the restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic put the entire cultural sector in a very difficult situation. receive equal support because “there is no war between equals”.

As reported, in the upcoming talks with the representatives of the Ministry of Culture (MoC) today, the director of the Liepāja Theater, which is in financial difficulties, Herbert Laukšteins will try to encourage the return of the theater to the state. In an interview with TV3’s “900 Seconds” on Tuesday, Laukšteins admitted that for several years he had tried to discuss with several ministers of culture the possibilities of the theater owned by the municipality to return to the Ministry of Culture, but the issue was always postponed.

Asked why the Ministry of Culture has not taken back the theater once returned to Liepāja municipality, Laukšteins mentioned that these are most likely financial considerations. Asked if this was the only reason, he replied, “I’d like to believe so.”

LETA has already announced that the management of Liepāja City Council and Liepāja Theater will meet with the Minister of Culture Nauri Puntulis (VL-TB / LNNK) today at 13 to discuss specific possible support for Liepāja Theater to overcome the consequences of Covid-19, LETA was informed by on public relations issues Daiga Kļaviņa.

At 15 o’clock, the council management will discuss this issue with the State Secretary of the Ministry of Finance (MoF).

Kļaviņa said that Liepāja Theater has prepared all the requested information so that the conversation would be specific and there would be no unnecessary discussions about the lack of information in decision-making.

However, realizing that the Ministry of Finance is not the only ministry responsible for allocating funding to the Liepaja Theater and that the Minister of Finance will not be able to join the meeting of the Ministry of Finance, the Liepaja City Council requested a meeting with the Ministry of Finance. Kļaviņa said to the equal support of all Latvian professional theaters, including Liepāja.

She explained that currently the management of the City Council sees the cooperation of three involved parties as an alternative to cover the missing funds – Liepāja Municipality, MoF and MoC. It is important to understand how much and what kind of support both ministries are ready to provide in order to understand in the local government what is the remaining part of the missing funding, Klavina pointed out.

Vilnītis has previously pointed out that several capital companies, such as Liepāja Olympic Center (LOC) and Liepāja Airport and several sectors, such as tourism and culture, have suffered as a result of the emergency in Liepāja, and everything needs financial support to survive and continue working.

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