Egils Helmanis, chairman of Ogre County Council. Photo: Zane Bitere / LETAOgres county municipality will not issue a permit to hold a meeting in support of the Ogres museum, which was applied to the municipality by the Ogres county civic cooperation and development society on Thursday, February 23, Dana Bārbale, deputy executive director of the municipality, said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Examining the application of the Ogre county civic cooperation and development association for holding the meeting, it was concluded that the organizers of the meeting invited people to come to the meeting wearing masks in the public space, hiding their identity.
Barbale explained that the law “On meetings, marches and pickets” stipulates that it is forbidden to hide one’s face under a mask at such events.
She emphasized that the representatives of the municipal police of Ogre region and the State Police were invited to the meeting.
“We cannot allow such a meeting where the public is invited to violate the requirements of the law,” emphasized Bārbale. She stated that the association could submit the application ten days in advance, because in the opinion of the municipality, such a meeting is not an event that objectively could not have been known about earlier than ten working days before it.
The association has the right to appeal the decision of the municipality in accordance with the law.
The chairman of Ogre County Council Egils Helmanis (NA) added that the Ogre County Civic Cooperation and Development Association is made up of three candidates for deputies who were not elected to the council, namely Elīna Grīnhofa is a member of “Latvijas teļisų” and is known in Ogre as the wife of ex-minister Daniel Pavļutas, while Kārlis Avotiņš represents ” Conservatives”.
“Basically, it’s a political association of members of two bankrupt parties in the country. Daniels [Pavluts] ordered us to wear masks for two years, so it’s no surprise that they also invite us to wear masks to the meeting,” said Helmanis.
He informed that an audit of finances and functions will be carried out in Ogre Museum of History and Art.
As announced, on Thursday, February 23, at 6 p.m., a support campaign dedicated to the museum “Democracy is as fragile as porcelain” will be held at the Ogre History and Art Museum.
The organizers of the event remind that on February 17, the municipality of Ogre region issued an order to the Ogre Museum of History and Art to coordinate any public communication with the municipality. The order also effectively halted the museum’s operations, preventing the holding of exhibitions included in the exhibition plan. In response to these events, the Ogre County Civic Cooperation and Development Society is planning a museum support campaign.
According to the organizers of the support campaign, the situation surrounding the Ogre Museum affects not only the relationship of the municipality with its institution, but also civil liberties and democracy. By preventing the cultural institution itself from communicating with the society, the fundamental values of democracy, which are protected by the Latvian Constitution, are significantly threatened. Therefore, the association calls on citizens not to close their eyes to “manifestations of censorship and dictatorship in our country”.
On Monday, the association submitted an application to the municipality of Ogre region for holding a public event in accordance with the law “On meetings, marches and pickets”. The law provides that if it was objectively impossible to find out about the event, in connection with which the event is being held, earlier than 10 working days before it, this may be grounds for requesting approval in a shorter period.
It has already been reported that the exhibition program of the museum has been suspended following the protests of the Ogre Museum against the exhibition of Russian oligarch Pyotr Aven’s porcelain planned by the chairman of the city council Egils Helmanis (NA), public media portal “lsm.lv” previously reported.
Arni Balčus’s photo exhibition “Latvia during Covid” will not take place in March, and neither the April exhibition “Latvian music on vinyl then and there” about records in emigration, nor the June exhibition “Coronets. Edītes Pauls – Vigneres Vainagi” planned for April have been given the green light.
“To be honest, we believe that the reckoning with us for expressing our public opinion started with the fact that the promised salary supplement… It is the council’s decision not to raise our salaries. This is the first blow – you wanted it, you got it!” Inga Zvirbule, public relations officer of the museum, described the situation.
On the other hand, in the letter of the deputy executive director of the municipality of Ogre region, Dana Bārbale, it is explained that the 2023 budget of the Ogre museum was approved only at the council meeting on February 15, so the museum’s exhibition and event plan for this year was not accepted, and the aforementioned Kažociņa exhibition was not included in it. The municipality accuses the director of the museum, Evija Smiltniece, of spreading false information.
