After months of resistance from artists and civil society, the Municipality of Tirana decided to withdraw from the plan to build the National Theater building under the Public-Private Partnership scheme. The City Hall announcement states that the theater building will be rebuilt with financial support from public funds.
"The financial model proposed by the private stakeholder for the construction of the new National Theater building and urban area development, but also the complexity of the project, which had to meet all the technical requirements required by the artists' representation in the commission, did not enabled the construction of the building in a fast-paced and modern infrastructure for a contemporary theater [...] Given the interest to build a modern and modern building that meets all the technical conditions for the performance of performances, to serve the theater arts community and the art-loving public, the Government and the Municipality of Tirana decided that the new National Theater building would be built by the state as a public investment. " - reads the statement.
The Municipality further states that it "shall build the new National Theater in a shorter calendar time and in compliance with all technical requirements expressed by the community of artists in public consultations".
The Alliance for the Protection of Theater reacted on social networks by writing, inter alia: "Our cause is built on the foundations of justice, this is the reason people have supported us, otherwise we would end up as a group of aesthetics, so it was pure in message and uncontested. ?
