German Stage Association wants to prevent Navracsics
The proposal by EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to appoint the current Hungarian Foreign Minister Tibor Navracsics as EU Commissioner for Education, Youth, Culture and Civil Society is met with sharp rejection by the German Stage Association.
It is unacceptable that a politician like Navracsics should take over an EU portfolio that is of central importance for the intellectual climate in Europe, emphasized the President of the German Stage Association, Klaus Zehelein, in Cologne. The ruling, Eurosceptic Fidesz party, to which Navracsics belongs, stands for restrictions on press freedom and the dismissal of uncomfortable theater directors in Hungary.
Europe is characterized by its cultural diversity. It is precisely this that is being called into question by the Fidesz party. Education and upbringing, especially of young people, in the spirit of this diversity is important in order to win young people over to Europe and to show them the importance of creativity and imagination for the development of Europe. According to Zehelein, it is also important to make freedom of expression and freedom of art a focal point of European cultural and educational policy.
An EU Commissioner who is responsible for restricting these freedoms in his own country cannot convey this. Zehelein therefore urges the EU Parliament to reject the proposal for the Education, Youth, Culture and Civil Society portfolio.
