Late in the evening on November 27, the media announced that they would National Theatre start working on December 7. The news did not appear on the website of the National Theater until the next day.
In a statement titled "Dear audience" there is not a single word about the safety of the building, as if it was not closed on October 3 after the pathetic speeches of Dragoslav Bokan, the President of the Board of Directors of the National Theater and the Minister of Culture, Nikola Selaković, about the danger that lurks for everyone who steps into the building on Republic Square. "What do we need, let the spectators, the theater, burn?" Bokan asked in a TV show.
Is the building safe?
Now, in the announcement about the opening of the building after a break of more than two months - not a word about it. Is the building safe now? Have the works from the 59 items that were allegedly listed by the MUP during the inspection of the building been completed? "Dear audience" doesn't seem to need to know about that. Now her safety is no longer important, the only thing that matters is that she comes and buys tickets for the December repertoire - the ways to do that are explained in detail in the press release.
An attempt to get an answer from the Theater Management to the question - whether the building is now safe from fire, was unsuccessful. We only learned, unofficially, that the conditions have been met to allow the public into the building, that the specification of what has been done will be known from Sunday, and that what still needs to be completed will be completed on the fly.
By the way, from October until now, the building was not empty. Employees of the Administration, marketing, workshops and ballet ensemble worked there every day.
Invisible works
They did not notice the works that made it necessary to close the building, and they mention the attestation of fire extinguishers and the repair of the hydrant in Francaška Street.
"All this confirms the impression that the National Theater was closed primarily to quell the protest of the employees," actor Darko Tomović, president of the Singlus union of the National Theater, told "Vreme" and recalled that the building was closed a few hours after a warning strike by employees demanding the dismissal of the Management, the dismissal of the Minister of Culture, and the annulment of the article from the Rulebook on disciplinary responsibility related to the public expression of political views was announced for October 3.
"Our demands remain the same, and we will be persistent until they are fulfilled. First they thought they would stop us by throwing us out of the building, and now I guess they will soften us up with this permission to play on our own stage again."
Darko Tomović says that they have frequent contacts with the Administration regarding their requests, "but in writing. Sometimes they answer us, but those answers are politically polite and mean nothing."
Criminal charges
Let us remind you that the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, Brankica Janković, submitted a proposal to the Constitutional Court for an assessment of the constitutionality and legality of the Rulebook on work discipline and rules of conduct for employees of the Belgrade National Theatre.
Also, precisely because of the closing of the building, a group of lawyers is preparing criminal charges against the Minister of Culture Nikola Selaković, Acting Manager of the National Theater Dragoljub Bajić and the President of the Board of Directors Dragoslav Bokan. They closed the building for no reason - the Ministry of Interior did not order it, they only advised the repair, that is, by their decision, even though they are not responsible for it.
The decision to open the building appears to have been made in the same way as the decision to close it. And so the question remains - is the building of the National Theater really safe?
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