TIRANA, April 13 – The projected children’s playground in Tirana’s main park which has recently turned into an arena of clashes between protesters and police, led this week to a verbal conflict between institutions.
A day after receiving in his office representatives from a group of citizens protesting the construction of the children’s playground in one of the last remaining green areas of the Albanian capital, President Bujar Nishani paid a visit on Wednesday to the construction site where he encouraged green activists in their cause against the playground’s construction.
The President expressed his solidarity with the movement and urged protesters to resist what the President described as “vandalism.”
“Taking and destroying the only park and only public property in the city is vandalism with which no one can agree,” President Nishani said during his visit at the park.
Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj upon learning about the President’s remarks said that the move undermined local government projects and that the visit fell outside his competences as head of state.
Veliaj said the President was becoming ridiculous by deciding to join anti-playground protesters and that the President was being misused by the opposition Democratic Party.
Unfazed by the Mayor’s comments, President Nishani replied in distance that this is not the first time he is being politically attacked and that citizen movements like the one for the protection of the park serve to the emancipation of society and politics.
Meeting in his office with a group of protesters the previous day, the President told protesters he was ready to monitor the case against the playground’s construction in the Administrative Court and offered legal assistance in case the legal process against Tirana City Hall goes to the Constitutional Court.
Tirana City Hall plans for building a children’s playground inside the city’s main park have met with stiff opposition from civil society activists and supporters of the Democratic Party often leading to scuffles with police.
While the municipality maintains that the zone will turn into a recreational area for kids, protesters suspect this is just an alibi and that business interest lie behind.
