Ministries have been tasked with identifying areas for a 10 percent budget cut, but according to Minister of Culture Heidy Purga, the cultural sector's cuts stand out because the ministry's budget primarily consists of redistributed subsidies.

"What makes the Ministry of Culture's cuts particularly noticeable is that the majority of the reductions, as outlined in the mechanism designed by the Ministry of Finance, are focused on redistributed subsidies. The Ministry of Culture's budget is largely made up of these subsidies. The ministry doesn't employ actors or musicians directly; most of the money we receive is redistributed to our foundations, grant programs and public institutions," she explained on the "Esimene stuudio" talk show.

"So, the peculiarity of our budget – or perhaps even the weakness of democracy – lies in the fact that we pass on these funds. This may be why the cuts in our sector are more noticeable than elsewhere," the minister added.

Purga noted that in her year and a half in office, she has had to prepare three negative budgets. In the first two instances, all of the Ministry of Culture's subordinate institutions and grant programs were spared from cuts.

"However, this time the scale and ambition of the cuts are much larger and the state's task of pulling out of the debt spiral is significant," she said.

Purga acknowledged that asking for exceptions in the cultural sector would not help improve the state budget's overall situation. "The state budget is primarily focused on security, with its outlook and needs being driven by security concerns, and the government has agreed on this. I don't believe that opposing this or asking for exceptions would help the government in this task. The time will come for culture as well," she said.

According to Purga, the cultural sector must find ways to minimize the impact of the cuts on the field.

"If we look at the statistics, there has been significant growth in the cultural sector – Estonians love going to the theater, museums – and the state has also taken on quite a few obligations during good times. Now, in a situation where the state is in a budget crisis and needs to focus on security, we need to assess whether we can temporarily pause certain activities or reduce their scale," the minister stated.

Purga noted that it's positive that there has been a societal debate about whether there are too many actors or state-funded theaters in Estonia, but she can't say that anything specific should be closed.

"I believe and hope that Estonia will never have a minister who declares that something is too much or too little. However, the recurring patterns in these discussions may give cause for a meeting with the minister of education and research to discuss these issues," she said.

Purga acknowledged that it's a significant question how many theaters the state can sustain. "The entire debate that's unfolded shows that this issue needs to be addressed. And I can't recall this topic being discussed before. Of course, it requires rational discussion, and it's a heated topic. What started out intensely has, in my view, reached a calmer phase in this emotional flow, and I hope the discussion can continue. The state took on quite a few obligations during good times, particularly towards the third sector, and now, with the budget tightening, we must make different decisions and debate what the taxpayer's money can sustain, how much, and so on – because in Estonia, there's a theater premiere every 32 hours," the culture minister explained.

Purga noted that while some funding is being taken away from the cultural sector, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia is receiving additional funds, and its role is likely to change.

"I believe that the Cultural Endowment's role in cultural policy will certainly grow significantly compared to what it has been. That's why I've proposed an amendment to the Cultural Endowment Act, which will balance the proportion of funding between 'concrete' (infrastructure) and 'content.' Some might be dissatisfied with this, since infrastructure is also necessary, but in these challenging times, the Cultural Endowment must take on a clearly more responsible role in shaping these policies with its sub-foundations," Purga said.

"In fact, the Cultural Endowment is staffed by top specialists in their respective fields, and it is precisely designed to make decisions, for example, on how best to support the third or private sectors. The Ministry of Culture should retain overarching responsibilities to ensure that nothing familiar, known and necessary to the Estonian people disappears," she added.

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