The Democratic Party has approached the Supreme State Audit (KLSH) with a request to audit the government for the 4.3 million euros paid for Kanye West’s concert. The announcement was made by Democratic MP Enno Bozdo during a statement to the media.
According to Bozdo, Edi Rama conceived the private event as a way to dampen the spirit of protests and to present a false reality about Albania abroad. He stated that through the spectacle, there was an attempt to cover up the roots of crime and corruption, election theft, the emptying and dissolution of the country, as well as the collapse of education and healthcare.
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The DP deputy said that 4.3 million euros were used for this purpose, while the damages caused by natural disasters have not been financed. As examples, he mentioned the successive floods that affected thousands of farmers in the south and north of the country just a few months ago, as well as the lack of logistics for extinguishing fires and coping with earthquakes.
In his full statement, Bozdo explained that the request to the KLSH has been submitted on behalf of DP deputies and opposition members of the Parliamentary Committee on Economy, Employment and Finance. According to him, it seeks a full compliance audit on the legality of the approval and implementation of the Normative Act, through which the state budget reserve fund was used to finance a private event with 4.3 million euros.
He stated that the Council of Ministers gave 4.3 million euros from the State Budget Reserve Fund for Kanye West’s private concert in Tirana. According to Bozdo, this decision has misused and distorted the procedure and legality of the Normative Act.
Bozdo emphasized that the event was private and that the government had guaranteed for months that no financing would come from the state budget. However, according to him, 4.3 million euros were quickly taken from budget funds intended for coping with natural disasters, including fires, floods, earthquakes and other major, unforeseen events with significant economic and social consequences.
In the assessment of the Democratic deputy, the most important development in Albania during this period is the awakening of society and the massive revolt of tens of thousands of citizens. He said that representatives of all strata and voters with different political beliefs have joined these protests, held every day for almost two months against Edi Rama’s government.
According to Bozdo, it was precisely in this situation that Rama projected the private concert as a “social fire extinguisher,” aiming to put out the spirit and energy of the protest. He accused the Prime Minister of seeking to create on the international stage an image of an Albania that does not exist, using the spectacle to hide crime, corruption, election theft, the emptying and dissolution of the country, as well as the worsening state of education and healthcare.
Bozdo repeated that this “fire extinguisher” cost 4.3 million euros, while the damages from natural disasters were not financed. He again referred to the successive floods of thousands of farmers in the north and south of Albania just a few months ago, as well as the lack of logistical means for extinguishing fires or coping with earthquakes.
He further argued that the Normative Act directly hits fiscal discipline and the principles of good governance. According to him, the use in this case of this instrument and the reserve fund conflicts with Article 101 of the Constitution, which stipulates that normative acts may be used only for temporary measures in cases of “need and urgency.” Bozdo stated that an entertaining music concert, requiring months of planning and negotiations, cannot under any circumstances be considered a state need or national emergency.
As another legal basis, the deputy cited the Law on Management of the Budget System, no. 9936. He said that Article 5 clearly defines that the Reserve Fund serves only for expenditures that are unknown and objectively impossible to foresee at the time the budget is drafted.
According to Bozdo, this decision departs significantly from best European practices and from international guidelines on public finance management, which require full transparency and strict limits on the use of emergency funds. He said that in this case, the fundamental criteria of legality have not been met, relating to unpredictability, impossibility of planning, and compliance with budgetary procedures.
For these reasons, the opposition has requested the KLSH to urgently clarify when exactly the negotiations for the concert began and whether they started before the approval of the 2026 annual budget.
Also, the KLSH has been asked to verify whether there is a detailed cost estimate for the amount of 4.3 million euros, in accordance with the requirements of Budget Guideline no. 9. Another issue raised is how the government can prove the “impossibility of planning” for an activity that requires a proper contractual and logistical agreement.
Bozdo expressed that the answers to these questions are known to every Albanian, but stressed that the opposition has a duty to set a European standard and put an end to this flagrant abuse of budget money, which, according to him, is used for the cosmetics of Edi Rama’s governance.
In closing, he declared that treating the state budget as a personal pocket, without respecting the law and procedures, is an action that today is not found even in countries considered bankrupt. According to him, such a practice is even more unacceptable for a state that aims to join the EU in just a few years.
The Democratic deputy expressed hope that the KLSH will act in line with the responsibilities assigned by law and carry this procedure through to the end, which he described as shameful for anyone, except Rama and his government.
