BRATISLAVA, August 15, (WEBNOVINY) – Artists and sole-proprietors pooled efforts in the battle against the governmental blueprint of the tax & levy reform. On Monday, representatives of the two groups sealed the Declaration on Common Steps, opposing more tax and levy hikes. By signing the declaration, Chairman of the Slovak Craft Chamber Vojtech Gottschall, President of the Slovak Craft Association Stanislav Cizmarik and President of the Slovak Association of Small Enterprises Vladimir Sirotka threw their weight behind the initiative of artists, clustered in the Slovak Coalition for Cultural Diversity, from late July. Chairman of the Coalition’s Board Pavol Kral and leader of the Civic Conservative Party (OKS), Peter Zajac, also added their signatures. The OKS inspired the artists, who in late July adopted the party’s requirements regarding the reform.
The declaration will be submitted to all coalition parties. The signatories also want to negotiate with PM Iveta Radicova and Culture Minister Daniel Krajcer. They are slated for a meeting with MOST-HID Chairman Bela Bugar on Tuesday. Kral, who chairs the Slovak Union of Visual Arts and the Slovak Coalition for Cultural Diversity, emphasized that the signatories did not mean to turn the matter into an opposition-versus-coalition game. The problem has been developing for years and for years has remained unresolved. It would not be fair to blame the incumbent government for everything because all previous ones have done little to settle the problem, according to Kral.
Peter Zajac announced that his party would seek support from all coalition partners. He ascribes paramount importance to this public statement. It seems to OKS that a great part of the ruling coalition failed to realize “what they have entered into.” In Zajac’s words, the reform will affect some one million of citizens who “do not expect money from the state, they do not stretch out their hands but make money to care for themselves.” During this time of crisis, the state should behave differently, more thriftily, and it should not save on people but above all on itself, Zajac argues. Artists and sole proprietors are bullish about their chances to amend the reform blueprint.
SITA