On 24 July, the President of Albania, Ilir Meta, submitted the complete dossier on the subject of the National Theatre to the Constitutional Court. During his visit on July 25th the Secretary General of the OSCE, Thomas Greminger has stated he believes that “all parties” should wait for the decision of the Constitutional Court before proceeding with the issue of the National Theatre. Albania’s Constitutional Court has been defunct for over a year and has a backlog of tens of thousands of constitutional cases, many of which are by citizens against the government. On the same weekend, the first performance took place again on the stage of the National Theatre. At the beginning of the performance the audience shouted “Long live the theatre”, “Down with the dictatorship”, “Long live freedom”.

Sources: exit/Explaining Albania 25-07-2019, and 30-07-2019, FAZ 26-07-2019, TAZ 31-07-2019