Artist unions oppose the privatisation of the National Palace of Culture

The NPC (National Palace of Culture) should be included in the prohibitory list of companies banned from privatisation, urged yesterday overall 12 artist unions in an open letter addressed to the Bulgarian society. They also sent a copy to Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and Minister of Culture Vezhdi Rashidov. Among the unions, supporting this request, were professional organizations of architects, writers, painters, actors and performers, journalists, translators and others. In their opinion, it is highly likely NPC to be privatised.

"It is a striking fact that the new NPC CEO was previously serving as a real estate broker in a Greek company. We have an information that the transformations and replacements in the NPC management have been implemented under the initiative of a group, notorious with its privatisation appetites and acquisitions," wrote the letter.

One of the reasons for the artist unions to suspect that the NPC could be transferred into a private company, was the GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) government's decision, issued 10 days ago, for the discharge of its longtime Director, Hristo Drumev. The Cabinet pointed out financial frauds as a reason for his dismissal. Another concern of the artists arose from the change in the legal status of the Cultural Center into a public limited liability company (PLC).

"We are afraid of a hidden privatisation since, for the time being, we have no clarity on the real  intentions of the government regarding the National Palace of Culture," said Mariana Hill, Chairwoman of the Association of Interpreters and Translators in Bulgaria.

According to the artist unions, the change of the NPC legal status into PLC is the first step towards the public auctioning of the Palace of Culture along with all its buildings and properties in Sofia. They stated that they had no ambitions to reinstate Hristo Drumev in his hitherto office and insisted on learning the real intentions of the GERB government.

"The management of NPC should be regulated by a special decree or law and it should operate as an Executive Agency with the Ministry of Culture. Its management structure should by all means provide for a public council, involving representatives of the Bulgarian artist unions, similar to the management scheme of BNT (Bulgarian National Television) and BNR (Bulgarian National Radio)," said the Chairman of the Union of Bulgarian Writers, Nikolay Petev.

The artist unions also reminded that the NPC was self-subsidised and raised the question why the change in the legal status of the Palace of Culture had not been discussed either publicly or in the parliamentary Committee on Culture, Civil Society and Media.

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