Romania celebrated the National Culture Day on January 15, the day when the country’s famous poet Mihai Eminescu was born. Romania's President Klaus Iohannis held a speech on this occasion, highlighting the paradoxes in Romania’s cultural space.

“On one hand, we have international award-winning films and a track record that we can be really proud of, but, on the other hand, we have a network of public cinemas that is unable to take over their broadcasting. We can find the same contrast between the dramaturgy’s international prestige and the theaters that close down the spaces located in buildings with high seismic risk, between the exceptional heritage and the museums that are being closed due to the lack of space or staff, between remarkable historic monuments and the insufficient budget allocated for their maintenance or restoration,” the President said in his speech held at the Romanian Academy.

He also talked about Romania’s cultural infrastructure, which he finds it to be “fragile”, and about how the cultural activities took place in improper spaces with insufficient staff.

The President pointed out that all these things needed to be changed and that implied several factors, such as the wish “ to promote and support the culture in all its forms of expression, a long-term project which should also target human and material resources, a strategy marked by both responsible decisions and a continuity and cohesion of the entire system.”

Iohannis added that, in order to have a performing culture, Romania also needed to invest in education.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Presidency.ro)