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Slovak Deputy Minister of the Environment Štefan Kuffa interrupted a theatrical performance of the Košice National Theater in the village of Malá Franková in the Kežmarok district on Sunday. She stated the actress Ľuba Blaškovičová, who plays in the show, and also journalist Lukáš Marhefka, who was at the event as a spectator. Kuffa in response he claimedthat a perverted film was shown there and that he and a colleague were attacked.
“The censor, Secretary of State Kuffa intervened – directly entered – the performance, stopped it and expelled the audience… the performance was interrupted… a dispute between him and the audience…” wrote Blaškovičová.
“He began to determine who the show was suitable for, who was not suitable, who should remain seated and who should not sit there. He arbitrarily interrupted the performance of the actress,” said Marhefka about the incident in the village of Malá Franková. He added that Kuffa did not want to leave the premises until the mayor brought him out.
“We had a nice evening, there was a folklore event, a holy mass. At the end, a perverted film was played, with small children on stage. I pointed out that they shouldn’t play it, that it’s inappropriate. I urged the parents to send the children away. We were attacked with sticks,” Kuffa claimed. According to him, the attackers were actors or stagehands from the theater.
The theater objected to interference in artistic creation. “The National Theater of Košice considers the situation that arose during the performance in Malá Franková to be unfortunate, fully supports its employees and opposes any interference with the freedom of artistic creation and its accessibility,” stated theater today.
According to the theater, the organizers of the festival where the actors played apologized for not informing in advance about the suitability of the show for adults only. The National Theater added that the situation did not authorize anyone to interfere with the performance and expel the audience from it. The theater believes that if Kuffa had doubts, he should have informed the organizers.
At the event, the theater performed a production of Irish author Elaine Murphy’s My Baby, which is presented in the Czech Republic under the title Three Girls as a Flower. The play about three generations of women and one year of their lives is, according to the theatre, the best Irish play of 2008 and 2009.
In response, opposition parties called for Kuffa to resign or be removed from the leadership of the Ministry of Environment. For example, the strongest opposition movement Progressive Slovakia called him an inquisitor.
Kuffa holds strongly conservative views. In the past, as a member of the Slovak Chamber of Deputies, he spoke out against abortions and unsuccessfully promoted a proposal to include artificial insemination as a criminal offense. Together with his son Filip, who is also a deputy at the Ministry of the Environment, and another son Gregor, he faces charges on suspicion of threatening an employee of an agricultural company in connection with the 2021 incident.
In last year’s early parliamentary elections, Štefan Kuffa was elected as an MP on the candidate list of the nationalist Slovak National Party (SNS). After entering the government, she proposed to the Minister of Culture Martina Šimkovičová, who is now facing criticism from artists and the opposition for dismissing the directors of the Slovak National Theater and the Slovak National Gallery. Like SNS, Šimkovičová opposes liberals and topics related to sexual minorities.
