site.btaCulture Minister Urges Politicians to Put National Interests above Party Gains

"Politicians are failing to put the national interests above party interests," caretaker Minister of Culture Naiden Todorov told bTV on Sunday evening. He said: "A politician is concerned with the period until the next elections, while a statesperson is concerned with the next generation."

Strangely, each division of the sector of culture is financed the wrong way, Todorov noted. "Artists work like factories, and instead of shaping public tastes, they find themselves following those tastes in an effort to earn more money," he said.

Todorov complained that personnel is diminishing in every segment of culture. "If we want to have culture 20 years from now, we should begin to work today. We are late already, but at least we can salvage something," he said.

He pointed to a lack of legal regulations on the management of overseas cultural property which is important to Bulgaria.

Todorov noted with irony that last Wednesday's sitting of the National Assembly, which voted down the proposed Rosen Zhelyazkov cabinet, left him optimistic that "Bulgarian theatre will never die".

Discussing the election of the new Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Daniil, on June 30 following the death of Patriarch Neophyte on March 13, Todorov says he expects the new Church leader to be able to draw people's attention because society badly needs spiritual leaders. Patriarch Daniil is faced with a very difficult task as Bulgarian society is deeply divided. "Material things have come to dominate the world by far. Balance is what today's society needs most," the minister reasoned.

Todorov said he could not give a straightforward answer to the question of whether he would remain Minister of Culture in a future government if asked to.