3000 demand budget

Culture demands: “Klagenfurt, do your job!”

"Art & culture on the brink of extinction!" warned a good 350 Carinthians at a demonstration in Klagenfurt on January 31. Now a petition with more than 3,000 signatures is being presented to politicians: "Budget decision now!"

(Bild: Tragner Christian/Christian Tragner)

It is a super disaster when initiatives for art & culture, sport and social affairs, which have always had little money anyway, receive none at all. This catastrophe is currently befalling Klagenfurt, as there is still no city budget. More than 3,000 people are now demanding: "Klagenfurt, do your job!"

Following the demonstration on 31 January, which was called for by cabaret artist and musician Christian Hölbling and the initiatives Kärnten andas and the Interest Group of Cultural Initiatives in Carinthia/Koroška (IG KIKK, which represents 85 member initiatives), more than 3,000 signatures were collected. On Wednesday, February 12 (10:30 a.m.), this weighty petition will be handed over to Mayor Christian Scheider, City Councillor Franz Petritz and Alexander Gerdanovits, Head of the Department of Culture, at Neuer Platz. The clear demand is: "We need a budget decision. Now!" Once again - unfortunately - the protest song by Marie & Luise rings out: "Finally do your job and get this place on track! A city without culture is not a city, it's a ruin!"

"Without a budget, there are no voluntary services for the independent scene. That's 800,000 euros in Klagenfurt - that's all it is. But it depends on whether creative artists have a job and can award contracts to companies, or whether livelihoods perish," says Elena Stoißer from IG KIKK.  

Every euro spent on culture flows back to the location three times over. Supporting the independent scene would therefore also be supporting the location.

Elena Stoißer von der IG KIKK

In the long term, thinning out the cultural scene would mean that well-trained artists would move to other sectors, their knowledge and skills would lie idle and their studies would have cost money for nothing, so to speak. Culture would disappear as a location factor. "The question is also: where does Klagenfurt want to develop? Should people travel to Graz on the Koralm Railway to enjoy culture, or should Styrians also travel to Carinthia?" says Stoißer.

"The demands are justified"
"I am glad that the petition exists," said Klagenfurt's cultural affairs officer, city councillor Franz Petritz (SPÖ). "I won't push it aside, but will take it seriously and present it to the committees, i.e. the city senate, the municipal council and the culture committee, because the issue needs breadth, it needs a major political discussion." The demands of the cultural initiatives are justified and must be taken on board. "Culture in particular has always been underfunded anyway and is a long way from fair pay. The situation now deprives many highly trained cultural workers of their livelihood," says Petritz.

In addition, the cultural sector generates indirect profitability that should not be underestimated. You can also see how the Kammerlichtspiele and Ventil would revitalize Kardinalplatz. 

All voluntary services for culture, sport and social affairs to date amount to 10 million euros. This amount does not balance the budget.

Stadtrat Franz Petritz will ein Budget, das kleine Initiativen leben lässt

"Without art and culture, Klagenfurt would also be a dead and empty city"
Klagenfurt residents have been concerned about the lack of a city budget for weeks. In the final weeks of the previous year, there was still a glimmer of hope that politicians could still decide on a budget and thus avert the one-twelfth rule and the de facto ban on support. But the drama took its course. And more and more creative artists have to find words of warning and pleading. Klagenfurt's municipal theater director Aron Stiehl received support from the eight directors of the federal states and municipal theaters throughout Austria: "Klagenfurt's cultural diversity and variety must not be destroyed! Saving on culture, especially in times of crisis, also means reducing education, undermining democracy, weakening the rule of law and preventing reflection on our understanding of who we are. Cutting culture means restricting independent thought," write the theater makers in a joint statement.

"I assume that we will have a budget in early summer," says City Councillor for Culture Petritz. But will all the associations and initiatives hold out that long?