Attack on politicians who appoint the minister of Culture

The discontent among people in the cultural sphere is growing. Writer Ana Blandiana lamented the fact that, despite Romanian culture being well-known and appreciated abroad thanks to numerous translations, "we are in a sorry state" when it comes to cultural funding within the country, and the Minister of Culture is usually "someone chosen randomly." The poet, who was a guest at the event "Meeting at the Museum with Ana Blandiana," held at the National Gallery's Ground Floor at the National Museum of Art of Romania, stated that "the Minister of Culture is the last on the list of ministers": "I would like to tell you what I have said and written many times, that one of our great misfortunes at this moment is that we have leaders who do not realize that the only field in which Romania is truly competitive is culture. And, in a field where we are not just at the bottom but have children winning physics or math competitions, as well as writers who are translated and known. We are in a sorry state when it comes to cultural funding within the country. As you can see, the Minister of Culture is the last on the list of ministers, and usually, someone is appointed randomly. There was a time when the head of the UDMR (Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania) was the Minister of Culture, coincidentally, he was an intellectual and even a writer, but that wasn't the problem. You can't appoint a Minister of Culture from a different language. It didn't seem right to me. He simply ended up there because they wanted to get rid of him, not to give him a more lucrative ministry, so to speak." The writer also stated that "now, with the latest cuts, everything that could be cut has been cut" from culture.

Ana Blandiana finds it extraordinary that, under the current circumstances, thousands of poetry books are still published in Romania every year, and many of them are good, authored by very talented young writers: "It's extraordinary that in a country where poetry is not subsidized in any way, literary magazines aren't either, where a young person who writes poetry has to convince their parents to give them money to pay a publisher, thousands of poetry books are still published every year, many of which are good. We have many very talented young writers. It's clear; I belong to the "60s generation, and it continues to dominate. It dominates because the well-known writers from the "60s are still well-known, but it's clear that the generations born after 2000 include absolutely extraordinary names. What's even more amazing is that there has been a complete blending of Moldova (Basarabia) and Romania in this regard. There are extraordinary writers in Moldova, published in Romania. It's not even known where they come from." According to her, the fact that Romanian writers are known and appreciated abroad is thanks to one of the presidents of the Romanian Cultural Institute, Horia Roman Patapievici, who had a coherent project in this regard.