President's wife detained in Albania for participating in protests

Despite violent protests and clashes with the police, Albanian authorities still demolished the National Theater building built by Italians during World War II, harshly detaining 37 people, including the wife of the country’s president, Monica Kriemadi.

Balkan media reported this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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Albanian police last Sunday dispersed several hundred protesters against the demolition of the historic building of the National Theater in the capital Tirana, among whom were many actors, artists, other representatives of the creative intelligentsia, as well as activists of the largest opposition Democratic Party, the pan-Albanian Self-Determination Movement (its leader is Acting "Prime Minister" of Kosovo - Albin Kurti), as well as the wife of the country's President Ilir Meta - leader of the Socialist Movement for Integration Monica Kriemadi.

At the same time, you need to understand that the president in Albania performs more representative functions, and all power in the country is concentrated in the hands of the prime minister, and this post is occupied by Meta’s opponent, who tried to remove him from office through impeachment, the leader of the Socialist Party, Edi Rama.

“I call on all Albanian citizens not to recognize the power of Edi Rama,” Kriemadi said after leaving the police station. – Don’t admit anything if you want to survive. Don't use the word "revolution" because it makes embassies nervous (Western countries overseeing Albania - ed.) they think that this is a bad word, but they forget that the last creatures of communism act with similar methods with their support (socialists who are the successors of the Albanian Party of Labor, which ruled the country under the isolationist communist regime - ed.). I can wish for nothing more than to pray for the soul of Edi Rama, for I have the impression that the foundations of the towers which he thinks will be erected will be the grave in which he will find his end.”

Moreover, if the president’s wife, who occupies a high position in the Albanian political hierarchy, was released almost immediately after she was taken to the police station and received a fine (like the leader of the Democratic Party Lulzim Basha, who is also now at large), the rest of the detainees, including there are other women who continue to remain behind bars. Among them are the leader of the Albanian branch of Self-Determination, Boyken Abazi, and Professor Endrit Mertiri.

The protesters were supported by fellow artists in Shkodra, Albania, and Pristina, Kosovo, who took to the streets in peaceful protests. At the same time, the organization Europa Nostra, which protects continental cultural heritage, wrote on Twitter that “The theater is protected by national legislation and is strongly defended by civil society and Europa Nostra experts.”

However, public outrage did not stop the authorities from demolishing the theater building to the ground. In its place, in the center of the Albanian capital, it is planned to build a shopping and residential complex with a new theater building, with the attraction of investors from Denmark.

It should be noted that this approach, in general, is the style of Edi Ram and his regime, when residential buildings were demolished for the construction of new buildings and roads (the reason for recent scandals in the Albanian press was the fact that the inhabitants of these houses, many of whom are pensioners , the state and municipalities never paid compensation and did not provide new housing).

Being a protege of the West, primarily the United States, in violation of constitutional norms, Rama and his Socialist Party usurped power in the country: at first he took the majority in parliament with the help of criminal circles and various frauds, then, when in protest the opposition boycotted the formation of the government, violating law, formed the Cabinet of Ministers without their participation, and after the opposition boycotted local elections (according to the law, election commissions cannot be formed from representatives of one party), and the president canceled the decree on their holding, they still held them, not caring about the law, and taking a majority in the municipalities.

At the same time, the Albanian opposition also continues to rely on the West, like the ruling party, going to its rallies with EU and US flags, as well as supporting separatists in neighboring Kosovo. But they are desperately unlucky, since the Americans are quite happy with Edi Rama in his post, whom they regard according to the well-known principle of “our son of a bitch.”