Macedonia's lawmakers voted Tuesday in favor of abolishing the 'national artist' title.
Under changes to the law on culture, adopted in 2011, the title (which brings a life-long national pension) was bestowed as a recognition to prominent Macedonian artists. In spite of today's vote for the title's abolishing, five of the six recipients, namely Simon Trpceski, Milco Mancevski, Boris Trajanov, Ana Durlovski and Nikola Madzirov will keep enjoying the status of national artist. The sixth one, Esma Redzepova, passed away in 2016.
About MKD four million should be earmarked from the country's budget for the 2017 pensions of these artists, Deputy Culture Minister Vladimir Lazovski told the Parliament at today's session.
Considerations are that the bill promoted unequal treatment of artists, cultural workers, Lazovski said, pointing out that there were better mechanisms for stimulating the creativity.