The writer Breda Smolnikar, who had demanded an “artist’s pension” from all culture ministers so far, has withdrawn her request. As she says, she certainly does not want to be a recipient of the artists’ pension along with those who have been rewarded for their “artistic” excesses so far. In a letter addressed to the Minister of Culture Asta Vrečko, she says that this is also why she signed the petition for a referendum on the law introducing allowances for (among others) such prize-winners.
“I absolutely do not want to be a recipient of the artists’ pension together with three holders of artistic pensions who were awarded the Prešeren Award, namely a pregnant woman wrapped in the Slovenian symbol, a torn and destroyed Slovenian flag, a dog-feeding woman stripped naked, and a priest who has ultimately ruined his reputation with his life unworthy of a human being,” Smolnikar wrote.
However, Smolnikar is far from being the only one who added her signature to the referendum call. The collection of signatures lasted until Wednesday, and on Thursday, MP Zvone Černač of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS), revealed to the public that more than 47 thousand people shared the writer’s sentiments.
How the left is also making enemies on the left
Smolnikar also wrote in her letter that, so far, all culture ministers, including Asta Vrečko, have refused her request for an artist’s pension. “It was about principle, not money. My pension reached 942.86 euros at the end of December 2024, and after my husband died, I was awarded an additional 59.82 euros,” she wrote.
Smolnikar also wrote that she was bothered by some holders of the Prešeren Award, in relation to the law on the pension supplement for outstanding achievements in the field of art. The law provides for supplements to pensions for Prešeren Fund Prize winners and Prešeren Award winners.
“It has taken me quite a few years to forget about this prize-winning trio, but now you are showing it to me again and rewarding it further, recreating the disgust I felt when these three people were awarded the Prešeren Award. I myself have experienced the joys of motherhood seven times, I have four children, I have written about the pain a mother feels when she loses a child, and I absolutely cannot accept such prize winners, I cannot and will not be their prize-winning fellow artist,” she wrote.
You can read Breda Smolnikar’s letter in its entirety below:
“I would like to inform you that I am withdrawing my request for an artists’ pension, which I have put forward to all previous Ministers of Culture, up until this year. Like all other previous Ministers of Culture, you have refused my request for an artists’ pension, which, over the decades, has been granted on the basis of the quality of the artist’s work, and not only on the basis of winning the Prešeren Award. Of all the ministers, only Minister Majda Širca offered me a small recognition allowance, which I firmly refused. It was about principle, not money. My pension reached 942.86 euros at the end of December 2024, and after my husband died, I was awarded an additional 59.82 euros.
I would like to explain this withdrawal of my request as follows:
I absolutely do not want to be a recipient of the artists’ pension together with three holders of artistic pensions who were awarded the Prešeren Award, namely a pregnant woman wrapped in the Slovenian symbol, a torn and destroyed Slovenian flag, a dog-feeding woman stripped naked, and a priest who has ultimately ruined his reputation with his life unworthy of a human being. It has taken me quite a few years to forget about this prize-winning trio, but now you are showing it to me again and rewarding it further, recreating the disgust I felt when these three people were awarded the Prešeren Award. I myself have experienced the joys of motherhood seven times, I have four children, I have written about the pain a mother feels when she loses a child, and I absolutely cannot accept such prize winners, I cannot and will not be their prize-winning fellow artist.
Tomorrow is supposedly the last day to sign the call for a referendum against such prize-winners. I will sign it.
Today, I will send my book, ‘Are You a Girl or Are You a Wife’ (with an added 18 hours of text from the book) to two of the Slovenian parliamentary representatives whom I often listen to with interest: the young Andrej Hoivik and Nataša Sukič. In view of my 15-year struggle for freedom of creation, not only literary and not only my own, I will also add my and Jolka’s “Letters” to the package. And they can then lend these two extensive self-published books of mine to other parliamentarians from other groups to read! Reading Slovenian books will certainly help to raise the current cultural level of our Parliament. That is how I feel.”
A persecuted writer
“Breda Smolnikar was born on the 19th of January 1941 in Herceg Novi, Montenegro. At the beginning of the war, she moved with her family to Slovenia, specifically to Domžale, and later to Depala vas, where she still lives today. After finishing primary school, she studied and lived in Kranj, where she graduated from the Secondary Technical Textile School. She continued her education at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology. She worked as a textile technology engineer in various companies, and since 1976, she has been self-employed and runs a dry-cleaning and coffee roasting business. She started writing in her twenties. Her first three works were written for young people and published by the publishing company Mladinska knjiga, and all her subsequent works are self-published. Under the pseudonym Madame, she published ‘The Ballad of Wild Milk’ (Balada o divjem mleku) in 1980. The work was nominated for the Prešeren Fund Prize. Between 1982 and 1985, she published a trilogy of short stories about Stobo, for which the authorities sentenced her to three months’ probation, claiming that the stories were inconsistent with the official view of history. In 1990, she published the book ‘When the Birch Trees Grow Leaves There’ (Ko se tam gori olistajo breze), which landed her in court. Five sisters recognised their parents in the book in question, which is why they took personal legal action against the writer. In 2007, the lawsuit was finally dismissed. During the trial, Smolnikar published another book, called the ‘Golden Depuška Tales’ (Zlate depuške pripovedke), which was her response to all the legal vicissitudes. Her works have been translated into eight foreign languages. On the occasion of her 75th birthday, she published a bibliophile edition of her texts entitled ‘Are You a Girl or Are You a Wife’ with illustrations, four studies and voice recordings,” the website Faces of Slovenian Landscapes wrote about Smolnikar.
Ž. K.
