Support for the No.6 Metelkova Street
The Metelkova City Autonomous Cultural Centre in Ljubljana, opened in 1993 in the former command headquarters for Yugoslav National Army barracks, is facing pressure from the authorities again, this time with a request to vacate their premises in the building at No. 6. Regarding the request of the Slovenian Ministry of Culture for 18 organizations to vacate the No.6 Metelkova street, an online petition of international support to colleagues in Ljubljana was launched, who are facing a number of other restrictive measures under the government of Janez Jansa’s right-wing Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS).
“On Monday 19 October 2020 the non-governmental organizations operating at No. 6 Metelkova Street in Ljubljana received a proposal for an amicable termination of the lease from the building manager of the Ministry of Culture and an order to vacate the building by 31 January 2021. If we fail to do so, the Ministry has threatened to enforce the eviction through the courts, at our expense. The reason given is that the Ministry supposedly needs the premises for its own use and intends to renovate them, although the budget is not slated to provide funds for such renovation until 2023, and the Ministry has not offered tenants replacement premises, nor has it entered into any sort of dialogue with us.” , it was stated in the petition.
The revocation of the permit for the use of the premises in No.6 Metelkova street is happening during the corona virus pandemic and strict epidemiological measures, which is why the signatories of the petition called upon the Ministry of Culture to give up that intention, which they consider an attack on civil society, independent culture and critical public.
"The current government and the largest ruling party, the SDS, especially, have never hidden such intentions," the signatories of the petition had stated, pointing out that the organizations operating in No.6 Metelkova derive from the heritage of the civil society movements that promoted the democratization and demilitarization of society in the 1980s, and thereby made a crucial contribution to the adoption of a democratic constitution after the country's independence. One of the key symbolic moments of these efforts took place in 1993, when cultural workers, artists and activists occupied the former command headquarters for all Yugoslav National Army barracks in Slovenia located on Metelkova Street in Ljubljana. Since then, it has been a public space where diversity, solidarity, dialogue and critical thinking are respected and encouraged. The current government in power is attempting to erase these values and this history. Instead of demilitarization, the government is planning to purchase a huge amount of weaponry, and instead of democratization, it is following the authoritarian example of Hungary and other Visegrad countries, where they have already dealt with non-governmental organizations in a similar way.
The No.6 Metelkova street is, by the way, the only building in Slovenia dedicated by the Ministry of Culture to the independent cultural, artistic and research organizations, that operate in a wider public interest.
(SEEcult.org)
*Support: International Relief Fund of the German Federal Foreign Office, the Goethe-Institut, and other partners
