Protests continue in Lithuania over new culture minister appointment

The Lithuanian Association of Literary Translators (Lietuvos literatūros vertėjų sąjunga, LLVS) will relocate the St. Jerome Award ceremony from the Ministry of Culture in 2025 in protest against the appointment of a new head of the ministry.

The award ceremony scheduled for Sept. 30, 2025 will be moved to the Lithuanian Catholic Academy of Sciences. Since its establishment in 2005, the award recognizes outstanding and artistic translations of fiction and humanities literature from foreign languages into Lithuanian, and contributions to advancing the translation profession. Since 2018, it has been awarded in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda’s decision to appoint Ignotas Adomavičius as Minister of Culture started a wave of protests in the cultural community, one of which was the postponement of the St. Jerome Awards ceremony.

On Sept. 25, 2025 nearly 1,000 people gathered to protest near the presidential palace on Simono Daukanto Square in Vilnius. People called for the Ministry of Culture to be led by a qualified expert who can effectively represent their interests. Similar protests were held in Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai, and Panevėžys.

As reported earlier, the cultural community in Lithuania initiated a petition against the transfer of the Ministry of Culture to representatives of the Nemunas Dawn party and the appointment of Adomavičius as minister. Within a few days, more than 51,000 people signed it.

A number of cultural institutions also refused to cooperate with the president. The Vilnius Book Fair, in particular, announced its refusal to accept the president’s patronage. Its organizers stated that speeches by Prime Minister Ingė Rūginienė and newly appointed Minister of Culture Ignatas Adomavičius were unwelcome at the event.

Dissatisfaction with the appointment continues within the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture. On Sept. 26, the Literature Council of the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture announced its resignation.

“The cultural community exists. We feel unheard, deceived, and humiliated. Therefore, we do not wish to cooperate with the new leadership of the Ministry of Culture,” Literature Council Chair Chair Dr Aistė Kučinskienė said.

In a joint statement, council members Irena Aleksaitė, Goda Baranauskaitė-Dangovienė, Rūta Eliosaitė-Kaičkienė, Laimantas Jonušis, Une Kaunaitė, Aistė Kučinskienė, Sigitas Narbutas, Ernestas Parulskis, and Justinas Vancevičius declared that they saw no possibility of cooperating with a ministry led by someone lacking experience in the field of culture and art.

“Appointing someone without experience in the field of culture and art to the position of Minister of Culture is seen as disrespectful to professionals across various cultural and artistic sectors. It demonstrates that their professional knowledge, efforts, and contribution to the development of culture are irrelevant to the current government, as they can be represented at the highest level by a politician from a discredited political force who has no connection to the field. We consider this to be disrespectful to the entire cultural and artistic community of Lithuania, which we cannot tolerate,” read the statement.

The task of the Literature Council is to submit proposals to the Minister of Culture regarding the formation of policy in the field of literature and its promotion, as well as monitoring the implementation of this policy. According to its members, after the authorities refused to listen to the position of the broader cultural community today, they no longer consider it possible to continue working as part of the council.

Read more about the protests against the appointment of Ignotas Adomavičius as culture minister and the reaction of various cultural institutions here.

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Source: 15min.lt

Main image: Roberto Riabovo/BNS

Copy editing: Joy Tataryn