Culture in Danger. The Lithuanian Case

 I’ve been asked to talk about the situation in Lithuania and how it may correspond to what is happening in Norway right now.

 I would like to start my speech with the boiling frog metaphor, which most of you may be familiar with. It says that if a frog is placed in cool water and the temperature is increased gradually, the frog won't notice the danger and will remain in the pot until it's boiled. In contrast, if the frog is thrown into already-boiling water, it will immediately try to escape.

 So what was that moment in Lithuania when we started feeling the rising temperatures and what was our reaction to it?

In October 2024 we had Parliamentary Elections, which ended in the victory of the Social Democrats. However, it came as a complete shock when we learned that they decided to form a coalition with the right-wing party Nemunas Dawn, which was a minority party.

In July 2025 our Prime Minister, a social democrat, was forced to resign because of a corruption scandal. In September 2025 a new cabinet was being formed and ministries reshuffled between coalition partners.

Then 23rd September 2025 we learn of the planned transfer of the Ministry of Culture to the Nemunas Dawn (Nemuno ausra) party. They were very excited about that, it will be the only  ministry they will happily take under their wing. Our first response wais a spontaneous gathering of a big crowd of arts and culture workers, including the performing arts, visual arts, and music, also representing small-town cultural centres. We met on the same day in the evening in an independent arts centre, Sodas 2123. We called this meeting The First Cultural Assembly and we agreed that some of us would act as an initiative  group (around 15 people). This group consists of independent artists, two general directors of national institutions, producers, and cultural journalists. We agreed on who will take charge of what and we drew up a petition, which was subsequently signed by 46 000 people in the next 24 hours. We also planned a protest rally that would take place in front of president’s palace in two days.

The first protest took place outside the Presidential Palace following a petition. ~10 000 protesters. Our only demand – in the petition and the protest – was to take back the ministry of culture from NA party. The scale of the protest was so large that our country has not seen anything like it since 1990, when we were rallying for our independence from the USSR.

 However, absolutely cynically, despite the protest, the petition and general resistance, the government appointed, and the president confirmed, the new minister of culture, a member of the NA party, Ignotas Adomavicius, who is a pasta business owner with no qualifications or any experience whatsoever in culture or the arts. The president commenteds that we should give Ignotas Adomavicius a chance to prove his worth, instead of operating on presumptions.

A wave of protests, boycotts and silent strikes spread across the country, and in 22 countries abroad.

 Despite his shamefully ignorant speeches and a weird take on the question about the war in the Ukraine, he begins work but manages to stay in office for only a week because the journalists soon discover that the staff of the Ministry of Culture were asked to remove all Ukrainian flags from the building. When most of the staff of the ministry wanted to resign, the Cultural Assembly issued a plea for them to stay arguing that they were the pillars that could potentially help the whole cultural sector to survive. If they leave, NA-friendly candidates might fill their places. After a week the minister is forced to resign but manages to bring a team of men inside the building and to copy all the data from the ministry’s servers. There’s an investigation into that under way.

He is gone but little has changed:

Censhorship, threats, racism, homophobia, and antisemitism prevail in the public rhethoric and , internet comments (trolls and bots).

The ministry remained without a minister for almost 2 months.

Nobody was lobbying for culture while the parliament wais preparing the national budget, so funding wais significantly cut as a punitive measure.

The government learneds to work in craftier and less noticeable ways: changing laws and democratic systems, like how arm’s length expert boards are formed.

 From September to November there were hundreds more petitions, strikes and protests across the country – in cultural centres, schools, etc. in Lithuania and 22 countries abroad.

The Cultural movement turns into a national movement: farmers, teachers, doctors, and students join.

 On November 10th a new minister, Vaida Aleknavčienė, was appointed through compromise on both sides. She remains in office until now. The government learns new ways of working: more secretly, allegedly regarding less significant matters – a change here and there in the law, which slowly destroy the democratic arm-’s length systems.

Those in charge wanted to silence the cultural activists/ protesters in the following ways:

•       Defamation of leaders in the arts and culture (anonymous emails, articles, etc.),

•       Antisemitism and homophobia, directed personally.

•       Threats.

•       Disruption of events.

•       Pressuring managers to forbid staff to participate in protests.

•       Publicly announcing the names of young people who take part in protests, penalizing them and their teachers at school.

There were personal attacks on the internet and in real life people's apartment doors were left open to show that «they» knew where activists lived.

Meanwhile, the president of the country remained silent.

 The Fight for Freedom of Speech:

 Having had so much trouble with a vocal, united and  stubbornly persistent cultural community, the government decided to back down and start a new battle – the one concerning the freedom of speech of the national broadcasting company. LRT was never a toy in the hands of those in power, they have a very strong history of investigative journalism that uncovers corruption, and they also stood on the side of the protesters. They speak loudly about human rights, especially those of the LGBTQ+ community or migrants. So, the government sets out to control the content of LRT, which, I assume, they think would help them to harness public opinion against protesters too.

•       On 1st December 2025 – members of the Lithuanian Parliament introduced a package of amendments to the law governing LRT, the national public broadcasting company.

•       They wanted to replac the director of LRT.

•       To change the order of appointing board members so that a majority is appointed by politicians.

•       To monitor LRT’s content.

A new wave of protests erupts:

•       Protests in defence of LRT – numerous protests from December until April.

•       Support from international organizations and partners.

•       A united Lithuanian population.

•       The law pertaining to LRT is still being deliberated in Parliament but only a few of the worst ideas remain there.

Breakup of the coalition:

On 6th June, 2026, the Social Democrats have announced that they were dispanding the coalition with NA.

 Take away

•       We have won numerous battles but we are still fighting the war.

•       We have to be vigilant as most of the changes now creep in, small and slowly.

•       They tried to sprint but in the end went for a marathon.

Lessons we learned:

•       Unified arts and culture, build networks during the time of peace.

•       React as quickly as possible.

•       When protesting, be ready for a long game, be ready to risk it all.

•       Assess personal risks, don’t underestimate what «the enemy» is capable of.

•       Involve other sectors: teachers, farmers, doctors etc.

•       Business, communication, and law professionals stood by our side from the beginning (consulting, assessing), this help was crucial.

The importance of cultural institutions (theatres)

•       A fortress in the city centres.

•       Ready to work collectively.

•       Actors can work with big audiences.

•       Workshops and production can be activated if need be.

•       We have the stage and the audience in every show.

Dealing with right-wing populism (manual):

The Cultural Assembly drew up instructions about how to deal with unfriendly politicians (populist, far- right, but these days it’s actually hard to define them – they can also be far left or independent, but they are the ones who fight against democracy and against the interests of the state).

Here is an example of a prepared document:

•       Let’s not invite them to events; Let’s not ask them to give speeches; If it’s impossible to stop them — let’s not hand them a microphone, let’s not shake their hands, let’s turn our backs to them, and let’s ignore them.

•       By adhering to the law and remembering that each of us represents a cultural community, let’s limit this political force’s participation in cultural life as much as possible and diminish the significance of its representatives’ speeches.

•       Let us demonstrate our stance through our example, support our colleagues, and offer encouragement.

The blow was serious:

•       Many artists refused to take national awards (they took money but never showed up at official ceremonies or they showed up and delivered very strong speeches).

•       Oorganizations refused to invite politicians to events, openings of big festivals, important cultural events.

•       A lot of important events refused the endorsement of the president etc. – for example the biggest bookfair (Vilnius bookfair), which was sponsoired by the president, declared him and the prime minister persona non grata. (https://www.lrt.lt/naujienos/kultura/12/2693242/vilniaus-knygu-muge-atsisako-prezidento-globos-nepageidaujame-premjeres-ir-ministro-kalbu?srsltid=AfmBOooQpDZ2yji6-V7UuBowQmk8uKGiUtBbmBVTsxzCHjFr9Wk_rV5T)

•       Iif they came any way, microphones would stop working or people would leave the room, refuse to shake hands.

•       The cultural sector boycotted foreign cultural policy – like preparations for the Lithuanian season in Germany  or the Lithuanian presidency of the Council of Europe.

•       For example in the National Theatre, after every performance, the actors would remain on the stage to talk to the audience about why they were protesting.

•       Smaller towns had their own creative ways of dealing with the situation. For example in the town of Alytus, the actors and staff of the Alytus City Theatre came to a meeting of a far- right leader with voters. They prepared a «performance» where one actor was playing a supporter, and the other – a voter in opposition to the leader. They never allowed him to speak, they took the stage for the entire hour.

Change in the artistic vision:

 Most cultural insitutions and indepependent organizations adjusted their artistic activities to be more present in Lithuania, closer to people, scaled-down, redistributing their resources.

One of the examples we looked to was the Tisza movement in Hungary, which helped them overturn the political situation. It concentrated very closely on rural/ small-town communities.

 Disclaimer: The Boiling Frog Metaphor is not biologically accurate. Real frogs generally try to escape water that becomes dangerously hot. The metaphor survives because it's a memorable illustration of how humans can normalize gradual deterioration, not because it describes actual frog behavior.

Much more information can be found here: kulturosasambleja.lt

Kristė Agota Savė is Head of Arts Management and Dramaturgy, Lithuanian National Drama Theatre and Artistic Director, Sirenos festival