The Albanian President’s Office has once again warned that it will take the transferal of the National Theatre’s land from the government to the Tirana municipality to the Constitutional Court.
The President’s Legal Counsel, Bledar Dervishaj said that the President will file a suit within the week, unless the government gives up its plan to demolish the National Theatre.
On July 25, 2019, President Ilir Meta filed a suit with the Constitutional Court, asking for the National Theatre Special Law to be declared unconstitutional. Due to the Court being defunct at the time, this suit was only taken under review in late 2019.
On December 30, 2019, the Constitutional Court asked the Parliament, the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Finances, the Ministry of Culture, and the Tirana municipality to submit their arguments for the Special Law. The case has not yet gone to court.
As a result, on May 9, President Meta said that the decision to transfer ownership of the National Theatre land to the municipality exacerbates the unconstitutionality of the government’s and the municipality’s actions, while the issue is still awaiting judgement in Constitutional Court.
The President called this transferal an extra-legal and unconstitutional tactic to go ahead with the demolition of the National Theatre building.
