TIRANA TIMES
TIRANA, April 12 – The fight of the country’s two main political parties over the reconstruction of Skanderbeg Square continued unabated this weekend.
The governing Democratic party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha and the main opposition Socialist party of Tirana Mayor Edi Rama continued to accuse each-other of improper conduct.
Transport Minister Sokol Olldashi said that the work to rehabilitate the square should stop and the Tirana city hall should first get the proper licensing permissions from the proper authorities.
Rama, on his side, also came out on Sunday to calmly say that the square rehabilitation needed a joint work of all the citizens and also the authorities and apologized for the problems in the traffic due to the work.
The Skanderbeg Square is to be rehabilitated based on a plane drafted from a Belgian architectural firm and funded by a grant from Kuwait. On the technical side, everything is set, but politics, as often is the case in Albania, can hold things up.
When Rama accused the government of hampering the project through not paying the compensation for the destruction of a public building that would open the way to a new street, the government said they would start partial rehabilitation of the square in order to let cars drive normally there.
That pushed the Tirana city hall to immediately start working there surrounding the area with fences.
Following that the government said they could stop the work because the city hall had not secured the environmental license, first, and added also some changes in the plan that should first get the approval of the Institute of Monuments.
The real problem remains with the two political parties, which usually try to hamper the work of the other.
The same happened four years ago with the Zogu i Zi intersection where a partial investment was demolished by the government. Following that the city hall won the case with the Constitutional Court and also a financial compensation, which it still has to get.
The ones that really suffered from all that political fight, and very likely from the existing one, are the common people.
The project for the square may continue for at least 18 months. That may be much longer due to the political fight.
This political fight will likely continue further considering that the local elections are planned next year and that Tirana, the capital, is a main center of their fight.
