The Democratic Party has submitted a request to the Supreme State Audit (KLSH) for an audit into the legality of the approval and implementation of the Normative Act through which €4.3 million from the state budget’s reserve fund was used to finance Kanye West’s concert held in Tirana.
In a statement to the media, MP Eno Bozdo described the decision as a misuse of funds, arguing that the reserve fund is intended for emergencies such as natural disasters, not private events.
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According to him, the concert does not meet the constitutional criteria of “need and urgency” that justify the issuance of a normative act.
The Democratic MP accused Prime Minister Edi Rama of using the concert as a means of diverting attention from anti-government protests that have been continuing for more than a month.
“Edi Rama designed the private concert precisely as a social fire extinguisher, to extinguish the spirit and soul of the protest and to paint a false image of Albania internationally, where the spectacle attempts to cover up the deep roots of crime and corruption, election theft, the emptying and dismantling of Albania, and the collapsing education and healthcare systems,” he said.
The Democratic Party has asked the Supreme State Audit to determine when negotiations for the concert began, whether they took place before the approval of the 2026 budget, and whether a detailed cost estimate exists for the €4.3 million amount, as required by Budget Instruction No. 9.
FULL STATEMENT:
On behalf of the Democratic Party and opposition MPs who are members of the Parliamentary Committee on Economy, Employment and Finance, today we submitted a request to the Supreme State Audit to carry out a full compliance audit into the legality of the approval and implementation of the Normative Act using the state budget reserve fund to finance a private event with €4.3 million in state money.
As everyone is now aware, the Council of Ministers allocated as much as €4.3 million from the State Budget Reserve Fund to finance a private concert by singer Kanye West in Tirana, clearly misusing and distorting the procedure and legality of the Normative Act.
Although the event was private, although the government had for months assured the public that no funding from the state budget would be disbursed, €4.3 million was nevertheless swiftly removed from budget funds intended for natural disasters, such as fires or floods, earthquakes or other major unforeseen events with a significant economic and social impact.
In fact, the only major development taking place in Albania during this period is the awakening of Albanian society and the mass revolt of tens of thousands of Albanians, representing all social groups and political voters, expressed through daily protests for nearly two months against Edi Rama’s government.
Edi Rama designed the private concert precisely as a social fire extinguisher, to extinguish the spirit and soul of the protest and to paint a false image of Albania internationally, where the spectacle attempts to cover up the deep roots of crime and corruption, election theft, the emptying and dismantling of Albania, and the collapsing education and healthcare systems.
And this fire extinguisher was financed with €4.3 million, while the damage caused by natural disasters was never funded, such as the successive floods affecting thousands of farmers in the south and north of the country just a few months ago, or the lack of logistics for extinguishing fires or dealing with earthquakes.
On the other hand, the Normative Act constitutes a direct blow to fiscal discipline and the principles of good governance. The use of this instrument from the reserve fund in this case conflicts with:
* Article 101 of the Constitution: Normative acts are reserved exclusively for taking temporary measures in cases of “need and urgency.” An entertainment music concert, which requires months of planning and negotiations, does not under any circumstances constitute either a state necessity or a national emergency.
* The Law on the Management of the Budget System (No. 9936): Article 5 clearly stipulates that the Reserve Fund exists only to cover expenditures that are unknown and objectively impossible to foresee during the drafting of the budget.
This action profoundly deviates from European best practices and international guidelines on public finance management, which require absolute transparency and strict restrictions on the use of emergency funds.
Therefore, this is a case of failure to meet the essential criteria of legality: unforeseeability, impossibility of planning, and compliance with budget procedures.
For this reason, we have asked the Supreme State Audit to urgently clarify:
* When exactly did negotiations for this concert begin, and did this happen before the approval of the 2026 annual budget?
* Is there a detailed cost estimate for this €4.3 million amount, as required by Budget Instruction No. 9?
* How can the government prove the “impossibility of planning” for an event that requires a proper contractual and logistical agreement?
Every Albanian knows the answers to these questions well, but as the opposition, we have an obligation to establish a European standard by putting an end once and for all to this blatant abuse of budget money, which finances the cosmetic appearance of Edi Rama’s government.
Because using the state budget as a personal pocket, without regard for the law or procedures, is an act that today cannot be found even in states considered bankrupt, let alone in countries aiming to become part of the EU within just a few years.
We hope that the Supreme State Audit will rise to the task assigned to it by law and pursue this procedure to the very end—a procedure that would shame anyone, except Rama and his government!
