Democratic Party MP Jorida Tabaku has denounced construction work in the area of the Taivan complex in Rinia Park, accusing Prime Minister Edi Rama of sacrificing Tirana’s history and public spaces for the interests of his loyalists.

In a video published from Rinia Park, Tabaku said that the area had been conceived as a public park in the city’s earliest urban plans and had been preserved as such to serve citizens.

According to her, the announced construction threatens part of the capital’s history and one of the few remaining spaces where it can breathe.

“It is a piece of history that they must eat away at and bite off from Tirana, just as they did with the National Theatre,” Tabaku declared.

The MP stressed that the park was granted protected-area status in 2007, while accusing the government of announcing the construction project without transparency or competition.

“Without any competition, without any tender, without any announcement, without any procedure, they announced that construction would take place here,” she said.

Tabaku linked the project to a decision made in 2009, accusing Rama of once again favoring the same beneficiary.

“After giving it to the Party’s Loyalist in 2009, today the government is giving it to the same party loyalist for construction,” the MP declared.

According to Tabaku, the case demonstrates a model of governance that adds more construction to Tirana while leaving the needs for public transport, infrastructure and spaces for children unanswered.

She said that this very “greed” and the exclusion of the public interest from decision-making are the reasons that drive citizens to protest.

The Democratic Party MP called for this system to be removed, stressing that the capital must be returned to the majority of its citizens.

“For these reasons, this system must go, to give Tirana room to breathe, to turn Tirana into a city for the majority, not a Tirana for the minority,” Tabaku concluded.

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