TIRANA, Oct. 25 – Albania’s Socialist majority overthrew on Thursday, during the Productive Activity Commission’s meeting, President Ilir Meta’s second veto against the bill foreseeing the demolition of the National Theatre building.
Rapporteur Ilir Beqja said Meta’s decree looks more like “wordplay.”
“The commission does not need to review the decree, because we have done so before. Based on the regulation, we made the first assessment and we made the necessary amendments to take it to the vote. I’ve read the decree and, in my opinion, it is nothing more than wordplay,” Beqja said.
Meanwhile, the Alliance for the Theatre’s Protection also gathered on Thursday in protest in front of the parliament, although weaker in attendance, to urge lawmakers not to overthrow the decree and follow through with a bill they claim steals off public property at a time the country lacks a Constitutional Court.
The country’s opposition leader Lulzim Basha also gave a media statement, saying the National Theatre issue is where the opposition will draw a red line and make sure the government does not reinforce “its ties to organized crime.”
Two weeks ago, Meta vetoed the National Theatre bill on the grounds it continues to present constitutional violations and has only solved the issue of preferential treatment towards “Fusha Shpk” – the private company already contracted by the Socialist Party to build the new National Theatre building as part of a high-rise commercial complex – in the surface
“In its core, the law’s provisions still maintain discriminatory criteria which do not guarantee free competition, and, on the contrantry, a preferential treatment which limits participation in the competition is still evident,” Meta’s official announcement stated.
The first reason behind Meta’s initial decision to decree the return of the bill to parliament for re-evaluation was because it oversteps the principle of “equality before the law” and “citizens’ freedom of economic activity.”
Artists and citizens have been protesting since the beginning of February concerning this issue, with the opposition blaming the government time and time again of corrupt ties with the private company it has hired to build the new National Theatre and of “giving away” public land to the private subject unconstitutionally.
Meanwhile, the government continues to support that the current NT building is in miserable condition and that it does not offer favorable working conditions for the actors and for the audience going to enjoy art there.
