site.btaCulture Minister to Insist on Salary Rise in Sector, but Says Matter Not Entirely Dependent on Him

Culture Minister Marian Bachev Sunday said that the matter of increasing salaries in the culture sector is not entirely dependent on him, but he would insist on a pay rise. Bachev was giving an interview on bTV about his 100 days in office.

Commenting on librarians' protest over salaries, he said that his team had requested a 20% pay rise, but that did not happen, unfortunately, and the rise was by 5% instead. "But we will continue to work because we know how important this is in a conservative budget, which we know how and when it was passed. All of this is extremely difficult to be able to react to these three and a half years of timelessness, if you will, from caretaker government to caretaker government, where money has been spent differently and when, at some point, you get into your actual house and you look at what the situation is, you have to take into account what you have," the Culture Minister said.

Asked if there could be an increase in salaries this year, Minister Bachev said he could not answer that question, which was not entirely up to him; it was a matter of estimates and how the budget would be spent and what the revenue would be by mid-year. To a clarifying question whether he would insist on a salary increase, the Minister replied that he would definitely insist, and he had had several talks, and every week he sees the Finance Minister and the Prime Minister. "There will be a restructuring of some budget sectors so that we can support culture," Minister Bachev said.

Regarding his 100 days in office,  the Minister described as one of the important highlights the work his team is doing to make up for many things that have been delayed in time, for example the competitions for the state cultural institutes, which have been delayed since 2023. "That's over 30 competitions, we've already let 17 go ahead," he specified.

Asked what is his biggest success since taking office, Minister Bachev said he leaves it to others to judge his biggest success and his biggest shortcoming.

Regarding the statement by the Union of Bulgarian Artists that "the Ministry of Culture is turning Bulgaria into a cultural desert of Europe", Bachev said this criticism was very strange, because it was made by the President of the Union before the hundred days were up. "I have no idea how I have turned Bulgaria into a cultural desert since January 16," the Minister added. He assured that the festivals were funded and arranged; however, now there is a more conservative budget.