Government Steps Up Effort to Demolish National Theater, President Appeals for Reflection

TIRANA – The rejection drive towards the decision of the government to transfer the ownership of the land where the National Theatre stands to the Tirana Municipality has been joined by President Ilir Meta, who declared on Saturday that if there was no reflection by the authorities, he would file another lawsuit with the Constitutional Court.

The ownership decision on the site where the National Theater sits on was taken on May 8 this year and was immediately published in the Official Gazette. According to the government decision in force, municipality is expected to construct a new theater with modern and contemporary standards. The cadastral zone of this facility is included and defined, as well as the rights that the municipality has to implement the new project in the decision.

After being acquainted with the content of the decision of the Council of Ministers No. 377, dated 8 May 2020, published in the Official Gazette No. 83, dated 8 May 2020, President Meta strongly forward the following message to the Albanian authorities: “Any action or decision to violate the buildings of the National Theater is beyond any logic of the functioning of the rule of law in Albania and would criminally violate the constitutional order, in complete contradiction with the public and national interest. The Council of Ministers and the Municipality of Tirana must not take any further action that violates the building complex of the National Theater.”

Further on he said the continuation of this state activity for the demolition of the buildings of the National Theater at this moment would severely damage the image and credentials of Albania in the international arena and the European family, especially in the conditions when the National Theater building on March 24, 2020 is listed in buildings of the European heritage, thus marking the European journey of this center of Albanian culture and our national identity.

“The organization Europa Nostra, supported by the Council of Europe and the European Parliament, praised this building, demanding the cessation of any action against it by Albanian institutions,” said Meta.

According to Albania’s President opposing a European Union act of support on Europe Day is the worst signal of cooperation for the values which Albanians have been striving to embrace for 30 years.

Citizens have been protecting the theatre every day for over two years. They have assembled on the grounds each night, putting on performances, speaking and making use of the space. The activists behind the theatre preservation efforts were also responsible for the collection and distribution of tons of aid, starting just hours after the 26 November earthquake.

Some 5,522 square metres of land including the National Theatre and its courtyard, was previously owned by the Ministry of Culture. In the decision, the government stressed that the land must be used only for the construction of a new theatre building and that the Municipality cannot repurpose it, change its use, or transfer the land to a third party.

Initially, the government had said the land would be developed by a third-party as they did not have the funds to do so. Following public outcry and a two-year-long protest, they then said it would be paid for by the state. The second announcement came at a time when the government had received over EUR 1 billion in aid to assist with earthquake recovery efforts.

The decision to publicly fund it also came after several years of efforts by Prime Minister Edi Rama and Mayor Erion Veliaj to develop it via a dubious PPP. Government favourite and funder of luxury hotel rooms for Municipality staff, Fusha shpk seemed set to build the new project along with tall towers.

In Saturday’s reaction President Meta was harsh warning that any further action and lack of reflection on the issue obliges him to submit a new request to the Constitutional Court in the coming days, for the declaration as unconstitutional, not only of special law No. 37/2018, but already of Decision No. 377, dated 8 May 2020 of the Council of Ministers, or of any other act related to it. “I remain hopeful in a reflection that unites us in these difficult times that the country is going through,” Meta declared in his message.

The National Theatre has recently been included on the list of 7 endangered sites, protected by the Europa Nostra organisation. The European Commission and Delegation in Tirana voiced support for the initiative and said they hoped stakeholders would work together. Also the Alliance for the Protection of the National Theater, which has spent the past 2 years battling the demolition of the building planned by Prime Minister Edi Rama and Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj, called the inclusion in the list “an important victory”.

Mayor Veliaj responded by saying it should be an Albanian decision and that the internationals had listened to “the hysterics” of a “noisy minority”. /argumentum.al