President Gitanas Nausėda urged cultural representatives to maintain an active civic stance, a message many in the community understood as encouragement to continue protests against the Culture Ministry being overseen by the Nemunas Dawn party.
The meeting at the Presidential Palace on Tuesday brought together 14 representatives of the cultural sector, including members of the cultural assembly that has organised protests against the newly appointed Minister of Culture Ignotas Adomavičius and an upcoming warning strike.
Initially, five representatives were invited, but after negotiations the group was allowed to bring two more, while the remaining seven were invited directly by the president’s office.
Nausėda’s chief adviser, Jolanta Karpavičienė, said the president’s position was clear: “Groups such as Nemunas Dawn are born and grow from division. We need constructive dialogue based on mutual trust and respect, so that division in society is reduced and destructive, divisive forces do not gain ground. That is a threat to national security and to Lithuania’s resilience. The president wished cultural representatives not to resign themselves and to continue to hold an active civic position.”
Cultural leaders present said they understood the president’s words as an endorsement of their protests. “The president thanked the cultural community for its civic activism and recognised that the current unity is a major force,” said Mindaugas Kvietkauskas, dean of Vilnius University’s Faculty of Philology.
“This encouragement not to accept the current situation, we see it as support to continue what we have begun,” said Gintarė Masteikaitė, head of the Dance Information Centre. She called on the public to join the October 5 warning strike, saying: “We hope it will open doors, not close them.”
Masteikaitė dismissed the president’s suggestion of a probationary period for newly appointed Culture Minister Adomavičius, who was sworn last Thursday despite criticism of his lack of cultural sector experience.
“We drive cars only after getting a license. There is no probationary period for driving without one. The ministry is a more important institution than a street,” she said.
The Lithuanian Association of Literary Translators also took a stand, refusing its usual cooperation with the ministry for its annual prize ceremony. Chair Daiva Daugirdienė said the association does not want “anything to do with Nemunas Dawn”, describing the situation as a “failed king’s gambit” in chess.
This year’s prize for Italian literature translations went to Toma Gudelytė, who said Lithuanian creators in Italy expressed their solidarity in a letter to the president but would not fully boycott the cultural program launching in Rome on Sunday. “We show respect for our country’s creators,” she said.
While cultural groups rallied around the president’s message, opposition figures were scathing. Democrats “For Lithuania” party leader Saulius Skvernelis said the president’s words were “worthless”, accusing him of inconsistent statements.
“One week he says he won’t talk to terrorists, the next he’s greeting them with a smile and a handshake,” Skvernelis said. “The president’s word means nothing now.”
Nemunas Dawn leader Remigijus Žemaitaitis, whose party delegated Adomavičius as minister, defended him. “Let’s stop this circus and let the minister work,” he said. “Specialists are meeting with him, the budget is being formed. Protests are becoming an incomprehensible genre.”
The dispute over Nemunas Dawn’s influence has become one of the most contentious cultural issues in Lithuania in recent years, drawing in artists, translators, academics and opposition politicians, as well as putting pressure on the president and his government.
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