Culture and creative industries strongly object to Kutris' candidacy for culture minister

RIGA - Representatives of cultural and creative industries have sent an open letter to President Edgars Rinkevics and Prime Minister-designate Evika Silina (New Unity), calling for a different candidate for the minister of culture, not the former Constitutional Court Chairman Gunars Kutris (Union of Greens and Farmers).

Media have recently been writing about different candidates for ministers' posts in Silina's government, and some of these reports said that the culture minister's portfolio could be delegated to the Greens/Farmers Union.

Latvian Television reported recently that Kutris could be nominated for culture minister.

Representatives of the cultural and creative industries emphasize that the culture minister should be a second head of state, a spiritual development leader who respects the Constitution and is well aware of the Russian war in Ukraine and the threat it poses to European values.

"What we are seeing now is theater of the absurd. Gunars Kutris, a man with situational morals and a reputation that is far from spotless, an "expert" of the State Audit Office, is being considered for the minister of culture," says the letter.

It says that nomination of Kutirs for the culture minister's office not only proves that the opinion of the cultural and creative industries is ignored, but also that everything possible is being done to further undermine the foundations of Latvia and the Latvian nation.

The letter emphasizes that the Latvian state must guarantee the existence and development of the Latvian nation, Latvian language and culture throughout the centuries, ensure freedom of the people of Latvia and promote prosperity, and demands that a different candidate be nominated for the culture minister.