Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has announced that construction for a new National Theatre building, to replace the one demolished on May 17, will begin in September and the surrounding area will see development by private companies.
Rama refused to rule out private development of the site, seeing no reason to do so, and claimed that in these cases it would have to be the municipality’s project and initiative.
“Even in the case of the development of the adjacent area – and I do not rule it out because there is no reason to rule it out – when we have a project, which we don’t have now, it will be the Municipality that should design and propose something,” Rama said.
When accused by a Kosovo activist, Rron Gjinovci, of having given away public property to be exploited by oligarchs, Rama insisted that there is no such thing as oligarchs in Albania.
In another interview Rama claimed that there was nothing left to preserve of the National Theatre’s building, and that he had been wishing for its demolition fro 20 years. Rama claimed the building could not be renovated.
