In Tirana, the Constitutional Court today began reviewing two requests of the President of the Republic to repeal as unconstitutional the Special Law Field, the government’s decision to transfer the National Theater owned by the Municipality of Tirana and any other subsequent act.
The President asked the Constitutional Court on July 24, 2019 and on May 14, 2020 that these laws and decisions should be repealed as unconstitutional and the collapse of the National Theater should be avoided.
But three days after the president addressed the Constitutional Court, the destruction of the National Theater was carried out on May 17, by numerous police forces and state means, amid a pandemic quarantine as well as protests to protect the historic building.
The Constitutional Court requested that within a week a complete documentation be submitted on the history and values of the National Theater, from its construction 80 years ago, the proclamation of a cultural monument until its demolition by the capital’s municipality.
It rejected the request to call a number of central and local government officials as witnesses, but offered the parties the opportunity to bring in their own experts on cultural heritage issues.
In today’s trial, along with representatives of the government and the presidency, participated the Alliance for the Protection of the National Theater, legitimized by the Constitutional Court as a third interested person.
This Alliance made numerous efforts for almost 3 years to protect the Theater building, sensitizing the local and international opinion on the historical and architectural values of that institution.
The government and the municipality of Tirana insisted on building a new theater on the site of the National Theater, but activists expressed doubts that behind this initiative are plans to build a group of multi-storey buildings.
