10052 | 23 April 2026 | 09:32
Nayden Todorov has started implementing real reforms in the "Culture" sector, which have not been done for decades. Interrupting them now would return the system back to its corrupt model. Therefore, he should be given a chance to finish what he has started.
This was written on Facebook by Petrinel Gochev - theater director, actor, artist, sculptor, and set designer.
According to him, the steps that have been taken - from exposing the faults in the financing method to preparing legislative changes and structural reforms - are the beginning of a long overdue recovery of the sector.
Here is the full post:
As the roulette wheel started spinning, as we accumulated the disastrous experience of being crushed by beginners, blinded by experiments that were dull, hopeless and doomed, before being sent back into someone else's centrifuge of perceptions,
I share: Why Naiden Todorov
With his indisputable experience and thorough understanding of the structure and mechanisms of the Ministry of Culture, Naiden Todorov has taken a few actions during his tenure as acting Minister of Culture that are unprecedented in the last 30 years. These steps are a statement and a clear sign of his high value for the entire cultural sector, and specifically for the critically vulnerable link - performing and musical arts.
1% of GDP
Nayden Todorov returned to the topic of the culture sector in his conversation, addressing the consensus adopted by all political parties in 2022 to achieve an increase in the culture percentage from 0.6% to 1.00% of GDP within a four-year term of governance. Currently, we are at 0.4%.
Methodology
Nayden Todorov was the first and so far only Minister of Culture to publicly declare the inadequacy of the methodology for financing the sector, introduced by the GERB government in 2012 and actively pursued by Vezhdi Rashidov and Boil Banov. It has also been left untouched by subsequent ministers and deputy ministers. Todorov clearly identified the problem, its root and all the misconceptions and propaganda surrounding it, fueled by the former ministers and cabinets, with the active participation of the SAB (State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad).
Independent, private and state-owned
Nayden Todorov managed to formulate and clearly describe the individual participants involved in the performing arts sector. This was a mapping of crucial importance, shedding light on the corrupt hidden channels of financial dependencies, grey financial areas, and hidden illegal mechanisms that led theaters and other cultural institutions into corrupt practices, presented to them as a way to cover their "obligations" to the budget. The three participants in the theatrical process formulated by him - state theaters, "independent" and private, through clear characteristics of their activities and funding, led to a clear picture. Everyone now knows and does not hide their place in this activity.
Registry
Nayden Todorov has started work on creating a registry of artists in Bulgaria, through which the work of every individual in the field can be tracked and legitimized. This categorization and enlightenment through the registry is of utmost importance for the activities and goals, which are different for every participant and require different positioning in the state's cultural and artistic policies.
Bulgarian politics.
Categorization
Nayden Todorov has started work on creating rules and regulations for the categorization of stages and cultural institutions, in order to determine the workload for each one in the implementation of the state's cultural policy.
Proposals for changes in the CU Law
Nayden Todorov, based on his previous work in the Ministry of Culture, has begun preparations for changes in the Cultural Heritage Law, which are necessary in order to remove the current funding methodology, which functions on a "market-based" principle that is not applicable to the sector, leading to increasing monthly debts. He managed to shed light on the humiliating situation, through a series of public statements, to which managers, workers and artists in the performing and music arts have been brought - the need to prove guilt and "beg" for monthly funds for salaries is demotivating and constantly lowering everyone through accusations that they are unnecessary. And this is untrue.
MK Administration
After the destructive management of the previous minister, which resulted in a considerable number of specialists being dismissed from the MK administration, Naiden Todorov urgently began to restore the damage in order to initiate the necessary processes in the management of the sector. NFC Only an experienced individual could fix the chaos created by Marian Bachev in the
NFC.
The restart of this structure was also made possible thanks to the quick intervention and competence of Naiden Todorov.
National Strategy
This previously non-existing document, required by law, is now in an advanced stage and is subject to public discussion. A change in minister would indeed send all the ongoing processes back to square one, which is undesired by all.
These are facts. They are visible to everyone. Our experience clearly shows - healing processes run, initiated by a knowledgeable and experienced person. He must be given the opportunity to continue what he has started. Other solutions would return everything to the old channel and again the culture sector will become a festering wound. The support for Naiden Todorov as Minister of Culture is strong, despite people's caution and reluctance to publicly express their opinion. Still, many of us have taken a part in this due to more extravagant and noisy displays of civic engagement.
Director Petrinel Gocher was born on October 28, 1968 in Sofia, but his family roots are from Vidin. He completed his secondary education, after some adventures, at the National High School of Applied Arts " Luka Gradinchev was born in Sofia and graduated from the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts "Krustyo Sarafov" with a degree in Directing for Dramatic Theater in the class of Margarita Mladenova in 1999. However, already in 1998, he made his directorial debut on the stage of the Pazardzhik Drama Theater with the play "Epic Times" by Yordan Radichkov. From 2000 to 2001, he was the director of the Blagoevgrad Drama Theater and currently practices as a freelance director.
Petrinel Gochev has directed plays such as "The Watch" and "The Vault" by Anna Petrova, "People and Magpies" by Yordan Radichkov, "Masters" by Racho Stoyanov, "A Man Lived" by Vasily Shukshin, "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, "The Big Profit" by Hector Quintero, "The Wedding of the Midget Bourgeoisie" by Bertolt Brecht, among others. In 1914, he directed... His staging of "Romeo and Juliet" at the Gabrovo Theatre has been nominated for an "Icarus" award, and the same year he won an "Askeer" award for his performance and set design for the same play.
He has also worked as a set designer for plays such as Friedrich Schiller's "Intrigue and Love", Alexei Slapovsky's "Paragraph No. 27" and others.
His debut feature film is "A Bulgarian Ship Sinks in a Stormy Sea" (2023). Petrinel Gochev does not part with his brush. He has more than ten solo exhibitions at the Sofia City Art Gallery and galleries in Vidin, Varna, Veliko Tarnovo, and others. He has participated with his works in exhibitions in France, Slovakia, and Hungary.
In the collection of the "Nikola Petrov" Art Gallery in Vidin is his print "Letter A".
His wife Gergana Zmiicharova is an actress, but she also excels in the field of visual arts and photography.
Source: Voices
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