Activists of the Theater Protection Alliance (AMT) have asked the Tirana Municipality for official information on the decision-making and procedures taken so far for the theatre project.
Dozens of artists, citizens and activists of the AMT were placed in front of the City Hall as Attorney Dorian Matlija filed a petition with the Information Commissioner at the Information Office.
He said AMT has been waiting about 2 months for a response to a previous request for information on the theatre issue, but so far there has been no response. Emphasizing that the right to information is a right guaranteed by law, Matlija said that the Municipality of Tirana appears to be deliberately obstructing information.
“We are dealing with a deliberate attitude that no information is given, not that it is not given for negligence or for mistakes, (Tirana Municipality) has no intention of giving it (information)… and this secrecy is to be seen in the context of the whole theatre issue”.
The situation of the National Theater is shrouded in a complete lack of information. Mayor Erion Veliaj has stated several times that he will continue demolishing the theater and giving it to private individuals who have offered to build it in exchange for part of the property and permission to build a number of towers.
For two years this project supported by a so-called “special law” has been pushed by the government. President Meta has sent the law to the Constitutional Court, which today agreed to review it, while the tender was announced in July.
The tender was closed in September, but there has been no announcement to the public as to who the bidders were, the bidders’ classification or the winner. AMT activists suspect the City Hall has secretly chosen the winning company to build the new National Theater building.
