Slovakian author worries: Progressive Slovakia Party is working on cultural revolution
Campaign meeting of the Progressive Slovakia Party. Photo Facebook, Progresívne Slovensko
Central Europe
Conservative parties in Slovakia have focused too much and too long on social and economic issues. Now, the Progressive Slovakia Party is pulling in the cultural sector, Janků Peter writes in an opinion article.
Peter, working as a songwriter, scenographer, and author in the cultural sector, worries about the developments in Slovakia. He argues that the liberal thinkers in his country use culture in favour of progressive ideology, he writes in Standard. "Culture is the values we profess."
Peter points out that the Progressive Slovakia Party is working on an amendment to the Constitution, which now reads that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. In addition, the party wants to allow marriage for all and liberalise the divorce policy. He calls the proposals an "attack on Christian culture."
Information
In addition, he warns that the vice president of the progressive party is behind the EU movement, which wants the Union to stop collecting information about who is male and who is female and to promote gender self-identification.
Also, the vice president of the Progressives wants to introduce the criminal offense of defamation of gender equality and other sexual orientations. That means, Peter explains that anyone who does not go along with someone's legal gender change will be punishable. In addition, sexual education without the consent of parents should become possible.
New man
In short, Peter writes, the Progressive Party wants to create a "new progressive man." He refers to the program statement of the government, which will "include the aspect of culture and its impact on the reconstruction of the country. This process will be coordinated by an analytical unit created between the Office of the Government and the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic." These terms are similar to the communist rhetoric, which also had the goal of creating "a new man," he points out.
During the communist era, the government built several cultural houses that indoctrinated people with the 'right' ideology. The content of the exhibitions, the books in the library, and the number of seats in the hall were all determined by the regime, Peter writes. "Everything else and free, which did not agree with the regime, was condemned to illegality, emigration or prison."
Democracy
Since the fall of the communist regime in Slovakia in 1989, the cultural centres have died out because the "official doctrine which would be subsidised by the state has no place in a democracy."
However, if it is up to the progressives, this is about to change, Peter believes. They want to "increase the presence of culture and art in the daily life of the inhabitants of Slovakia and in public space," he quotes their program.
Peter points out that the goal of Progressive Slovakia is to reconstruct the communist cultural centres, fill them with art and culture and use that to make Slovakia a "modern cultural identity."
Rainbow flag
Elements of this strategy are already seen in the rainbow flag that decorates the Art Hall and the Queer Theater Festival, which is organised annually by the Slovak National Theater, for example.
The root of the problem, however, lies with the conservatives, according to Peter. "They made the big mistake that after 89, they focused mainly on economic issues in the light of their liberalisation and allowed the space of culture to be occupied by the progressive coloniser. And that is why it is necessary to return to culture its universal human values."
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