Ogre’s local government has decided to prohibit the rally in support of Ogre History and Art Museum previously submitted for approval by Ogre’s civil cooperation and development association, as reported at a press-conference by the local government’s deputy executive director Dana Bārbale.
On Friday, the 24th of February, Latvian Minister of Culture Nauris Puntulis called an extraordinary meeting of the ministry’s Council of Museums to discuss the situation in Ogre. Representatives of the local government and the museum were invited to attend.
The 2nd of February marked the start of reorganisation of Ogre History and Art Museum. This act was initiated following the decision from the local government made on the 22nd of December 2022. The museum’s workers believe they are under repressions for their decision to object to Puntulis fellow member of the National Alliance, Ogre Council Council chairman Egils Helmanis decision to organise an exhibition featuring porcelain from the private collection of Russian oligarch Pyotr Aven.
Ombudsman Juris Jansons also reports having taken an interest in the situation in Ogre. He says his bureau has started analysing it.
The county’s council concluded after reviewing the request for the rally that
organisers of the rally invited people to come to the event wearing masks, hiding their identity.
Bārbale explained that the Law on Meetings, Processions, and Pickets states that participants of such events are not allowed to hide their faces. She stressed that police representatives were invited to attend the meeting.
«We cannot permit a rally participants of which are invited to breach requirements of the law,» stressed Bārbale.
Ogre County Council chairman added that the aforementioned association consists of three candidates that were not elected to the council: Elīna Grīnhofa is a member of For Latvia’s Development and the wife of ex-minister Daniels Pavļuts, Kārlis Avotiņš represents the Conservative Party. «Basically it is an association that consists of two bankrupt political parties.
Daniels [Pavļuts] had us wear masks for two years,
so it’s no surprise people were invited to wear masks at the rally,» said Helmanis. Healso said that an audit will be performed at the Ogre History and Art Museum.
Also read: Latvian National Alliance politician may have close ties with «sanctioned oligarch» Petr Aven
A previously reported, on Thursday, the 23rd of February, it was planned to organise a rally outside the museum titled Democracy as fragile as porcelain. Organisers of the event remind that on the 17th of February Ogre’s local government ordered the museum to coordinate all public communication with the municipality before publication from there on in.