The Ministry of Culture is not paying attention to the demands of the Belgrade Philharmonic musicians, who are entering the third week of the strike, and nine institutions, including seven museums, have started a three-day strike.
This week, a part of cultural institutions in Belgrade is on strike.
They are on strike from March 17 to 19 Ethnographic Museum, Historical Museum of Serbia, Historical Archive of Belgrade, Yugoslav Cinematheque, Museum of Yugoslavia, Museum of Applied Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Natural History and Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments.
I Belgrade Philharmonic, which is in the third week of the general strike.
Museums
From the group of institutions where the museum is located, only the members of the Independent Union and those who joined them are on strike in Ethnographic, on Monday and Tuesday for one hour each, and on Wednesday for the whole day.
Everyone from that group asks the competent institutions to urgently fulfill student demands, "which they accept as their own", and those from the domain of culture. These are: increasing the budget for culture, returning the status of cultural monuments to the General Staff, protecting all cultural monuments from investor urbanism, and the unconditional depoliticization of cultural institutions.
Philharmonic
The Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra has been on strike since March 3, 2025, in order to fulfill two basic demands: an urgent improvement of their material situation, as well as an urgent opening of the competition for the director of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra.
In today's announcement, they say that in the week of the strike announcement (February 24-28), "the Ministry of Culture established a dialogue with the strike committee." Representatives of the ministry organized two meetings, and the first one was attended by Minister Selaković. However, since the day when the strike decision came into force, no further meetings have taken place for two full weeks and they are still awaited.
In the meantime, the Government of Serbia dismissed the President of the Board of Directors of the Belgrade Philharmonic, Rade Vojnović, at the meeting held on February 27, 2025. However, a new appointment did not take place, without which the competition for the director cannot be carried out."
That's why the Philharmonic says: "we're here, and we're waiting."
National Theatre Orchestra
National Theatre Orchestra has ended the strike, but the rehearsal today, Monday, which was scheduled for the upcoming performance of the opera "Rigoletto", was canceled because many members complained of anxiety and discomfort due to the incident at the protest on Saturday.
The next rehearsal is on Tuesday, it is expected that it will be, that is, that "Rigoletto" will not be canceled on Wednesday, March 19.
Boris Postovnik, president of the Union of Music Artists of Serbia, told the "Vremena" portal that the strike of the National Theater Orchestra has ended because an agreement was reached with the Administration that their demands, which are in the domain of the National Theater, will be fulfilled.
These are: regular health examinations, payment of depreciation for the maintenance of private instruments and change of status of two part-time members of the Orchestra.
The main demand for which the strike is taking place in the first place, the salary increase, depends exclusively on the Ministry of Culture, that is, the Ministry of Finance, and it is not known when and if it will be fulfilled.
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