Chairman of the Writers' Union Arno Jundze: Someone was hoping for bricks to be thrown in the window

"Someone probably hoped that during the art flash mob bricks would fly into the windows of the Saeima, and now feels disappointed that it did not happen. However, our goal is to tidy up the creative environment, not to pave the way for another ambitious and incompetent politician,” says Arno Jundze, a writer, journalist, and chairman of the Writers' Union, with whom we have a conversation today.

We have just witnessed a protest by creative people: they piled up a brick wall in the Dome Square (the closest they were allowed to the Saeima) as a symbol of the blindness and deafness of the authorities, protesting against the new tax regulation, which will make the creators even poorer than they are now.

Yes. The Ministry of Finance is proposing a reform that is absolutely needed, but at the same time it has forgotten to talk to authors: writers, painters, composers, creators in general - about what they need. As a result, the reform has turned out wrong. If it is passed, the material situation will deteriorate for all creators - for some by 8%, for others by 14%, some even mention 30%, because each art sector requires a very specific investment in materials.

It's all happening with Covid-19 in the background, and you don't know if and when you'll have your next job order. Of course, no one is excited about it. There are some good things in the tax reform proposal as a whole, but it is like mixing together golden sand with some garbage all in one bag.

This reform plan of the Ministry of Finance applies not only to writers, but also to all other creative people.

Yes, it also applies to artists, composers, performers, some actors working in project theaters, virtually everyone working in the film industry, set designers, directors, journalists ... And for journalists, this new tax regulation applies even more: most media companies pay salaries, and many - also royalties. The latter will become much smaller. There is a group of creative people, such as sculptors and painters, who need to buy the materials they need for their work, and often the client also puts the cost of the materials they need in their royalties, which is very expensive. Therefore, they have so far had 50% as eligible expenditure. It must have seemed to someone - that’s far too much, this must be stopped. The problem is that the Ministry of Finance has never spoken to any creative organization representing the authors, nor has it been interested in the real situation. And also. Many projects are time consuming. They take place over several years. It is not an exaggeration when it is claimed that for some artists works have been planned three years in advance. The question is not just about opera stars. Sculptors, cinema, major literary projects: poetry days, novel series. The unfortunate thing is that some of them have already received money this year, so if, for example, I am a film producer who is making a series that is expected to be completed sometime in 2022, then most likely if I do not finish it by 1 July next year, this will mean that I will never finish it with the funds allocated - after 1 July next year, the whole tax system will change and the losses will kill the whole project.

Why do you think Minister of Finance Jānis Reirs is moving forward with this tax plan without listening to anyone?

Mr Reirs tried to do this once before already, but everyone banded together and foiled his plan. At the time, he was the Minister of Welfare. Reirs seems to be very stubborn, which is a good trait for a politician, he fights for his ideas to the end. Unfortunately, the main problem is that attempts to sort out taxes are still chaotic and incomprehensible. The excuse that artists will be socially secure is the purest mockery. It just seems that before that, the big tax reformers were eager to catch the news in the yellow magazines that some artist had never paid anything in taxes and is now "sitting" on a small pension. Then it was concluded that no creative person pays taxes and these do-gooders appeared, who decided to "help". To make their case safer, they began to publicly proclaim that all artists were in the gray area and did not pay taxes. It is clear that the public, which had also read some revelations coaxed from some artists with the help of a strong drink, for whom this weakness is a closer friend than their art, then directed their outrage at the officials and are now angrily looking at the artists - you parasites live on at our expense.

If someone tells you this, what do you say against it?

Absurd. We all pay taxes. Many have overpaid taxes and are still getting their money back. In addition, as everywhere in life, creators are very different. Someone may not earn even the minimum salary per month, but there are also those who earn 20, 40 and more thousands of euros a year. And the amount of taxes that such a well-paid "creative scum who drinks the lifeblood of regular workers" pays to the state is much higher than that of those who receive the minimum or simply low wages. But in our society, low-wage earners are really socially depressed because we do not live in the West, where minimum wages provide a decent and dignified opportunity to live. They are frustrated and it is easy to tell them that this is the "real enemy" that makes you live badly. They are told that the problem is not politicians making stupid decisions, but rather the artists that they, the poor, must now sustain. But in reality, artists often support the state rather than the state supports the artists. But some politicians are currently trying to turn artists into thieves who are sitting in a gray area, and that is extremely wrong.

What is the role of the Ministry of Culture in this absurdity?

As is the country, such is the ministry. The Ministry of Culture has never been taken seriously since independence restoration. Unfortunately.

You mean the government's attitude in general?

Yes. The Ministry of Culture traditionally gets the leftovers that remain after the others. If there is a more determined minister who knows how to grab some part of it, then something happens. It seems to me that sometimes it is forgotten to inform them about things that affect the cultural sector. They are just told of the fact afterwards. I have been told several times in the Ministry of Culture that there was no information about this plan from the Ministry of Finance until September. And then at the last moment, like from a magician's hat, a rabbit was pulled out so that everyone would be stunned and vote "yes".

The government submits this draft together with the budget to the Saeima. Do you have any hopes that the Saeima could oppose the plan to steal from creative people?

I very much hope that there are people in the Saeima who understand: if they put the creators in this financial dead end, in the next Saeima elections, which are not that far away, the respective parties will strongly lose the votes even if they did well in Riga. The creators supported them there, not knowing what kind of cat in the bag Reirs was preparing behind their backs. Even economists say this: at a time when there is a Covid crisis that has put everyone on their knees, do not make drastic, robbery tax changes! No normal country does it!

Let's emphasize this, in a normal... In a normal country, the voice of the Ministry of Culture should be heard much louder.

The Ministry of Culture says it tried to do something at the last minute. Without them, the reform proposal would be much more terrible.

Yes, such an argument is often heard.

The pressure from the Ministry of Finance seems to be very high. There is coalition discipline, there is party discipline, some kind of backroom agreements. If we are not heard, we are ready to hold other, much wider art campaigns about building a wall. No slogans, no calls to support a specific party. It must be understood that even for the recipient of small royalties, the ten euros they will not receive can at some point be decisive or even fatal. If there is very little money, the value of each euro is much higher. And think about what will happen to our mass media when publishers are again put under a new burden in a situation where many are already unable to make ends meet!

What to call it all - the immorality of the coalition?

If the system just churns out new citizens who understand less and less about social and historical connections, then the result is what it is. A low-quality society is being created, and thus the state is of equal quality, and no problem gets solved. The problem of royalties began in the 1990s with the slogan "we can't pay you as much as you deserve, so we’ll pay something so you don't starve" - ​​at the expense of your social security contributions. Many were forced to accept it, and all seemed well. But this misconception has been continuing for decades, creating more and more generations of poor intellectuals, as it turns out that the state can already start manipulating it: if the artist is given a bit more, he will appreciate it, he might just promote some political force in a commercial out of the goodness of his heart. I assume that some consultant is whispering in the ears of the Ministry of Finance - here you have a good smoke screen to divert attention from the real budget problems - say that artists are parasites on the body of a healthy people! And society falls for it. Because they have read in the yellow press some artist’s boasting, of how he was paid for his performance in the 90s in cash, so now, in his retirement years, he does not have enough money for a loaf of bread.

I know that many creators have been saving money for their pension fund for years. That is why the number of such "cash takers" is very small, and now it is practically impossible, everything happens on the basis of copyright agreements. But perhaps many who say that creatives "do nothing" do not understand why culture is needed.

If they don't care about what language to speak and think in, then I'm so sorry, but I can't help them. You can, of course, speak in English, while cleaning bathrooms not only in London, but also here in Latvia. I think that those who see creatives as "doing nothing" do not understand anything from life or society. In addition, they destroy the future of their children, which should be based on culture...

...which this coalition aims to destroy. By the way, there was an idea somewhere that an artists' strike could take place on November 18, on the Independence Day of Latvia, i.e. no musician, no actor is participating anywhere, and the rulers are left without concerts.

It should be done once and for all... However, to invite artists to give up concerts, for whom it might be the last chance to earn a living this year, would be risky. People are also not to blame for everything being so bleak. Creatives have to live. And you can't tell a musician or actor - don't do a concert, go to work in a fish factory(apologies to all fish factories!). Everyone has to do what they know best. But the idea of ​​"culture does not cooperate with the state" will have to be developed if nothing changes for the better. I am probably a naive person, so I hope for people being reasonable, I believe that an agreement between creatives and the Saeima will be found. If not, well then... Dissatisfaction on the creative side is very high, and demonstrations will continue. Someone probably hoped that during the art flash mob bricks would fly into the windows of the Saeima, and now feels disappointed that it did not happen. We know that all revolutions consume their children, so we do not speak political but artistic language. Our goal is to tidy up the creative environment, not to pave the way for another ambitious and incompetent politician.