Today Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj turned up uninvited and attempted to take over a hearing of the Parliamentary Media Committee regarding the draft law that will expropriate the public land on which the National Theater buildingis built, in order to grant it without public procurement or open competition to the private company Fusha shpk.
Despite the constant demands of the Chairwoman of the Parliamentary Media Committee, Albana Vokshi, the Republican Guard refused to remove Tirana mayor Erion Veliaj from the Committee’s session. During the session, Vokshi declared:
[Erion Veliaj] gets paid by oligarchs and drug lords. He thinks he can be arrogant in Parliament, the same way he is in the municipality. He was not invited and he showed up to ruin the meeting. This was intentional. The government avoids confrontation because they don’t want the fact that they have drafted a law that will expropriate private land for private profit to be revealed.
Following Veliaj’s departure, Minister of Culture Mirela Kumbaro and MPs from the Socialist Party also left the Committee hearing. According to the Committee’s schedule, a hearing with the mayor regarding the Theater draft law is set to be held on Wednesday.
