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| Ilir Meta in a press release today showing articles of the Albanian law |
The president says that the government's decision to transfer the National Theater to the ownership of the Municipality of Tirana should be repealed as unconstitutional.
This is the second time that President Meta has gone to the Constitutional Court on this issue. He urged the court to repeal the special law Fusha as unconstitutional and to stop the demolition of the National Theater until the Constitutional Court issues a decision on the legality of these steps by the government.
"Through this act, Albanians everywhere are today in danger of losing a public property of high national interest. With its demolition, the cultural heritage and national identity embodied in these buildings are intended to disappear, and our shared collective memory to be lost. This decision of the Council of Ministers continues to carry the unconstitutional goal of violating public property that is closely related to the national cultural heritage and national identity." the President said.
The Alliance for the Protection of Theater demands the restoration of the 80-year-old historic building.
The organization "Europa Nostra" has included the Theater of Albania in the list of 7 most endangered cultural objects and has expressed its readiness to restore it with European funds.
But the government and the municipality of Tirana have said the new theater is part of the city's development plans. The Socialists drafted a special law in parliament for a private company to build the new facility, and the municipality has now taken over the construction itself. The city council is discussing tomorrow the demolition of the National Theater and the construction of a new one on the same plot.
The municipal police went to the National Theater yesterday to take over the building, which from now on, with the decision of the government, is the property of the municipality of Tirana. This police move last night provoked a spontaneous gathering of artists and citizens who have been opposing plans for several years to demolish the National Theater and build a new theater there. The Alliance for the Protection of Theater has been defending the historic complex of the National Theater for more than 9 months, 24/24 without interruption and has been protesting for more than two years, since February 2018 to prevent the demolition projects of the National Theater, they demand that a new theater could be built anywhere else in Tirana, the 100-years old capital of Albania, but not over the 80-year-old historic Albanian art building.