The sneaky demolition of the National Theatre during Corona: This is just the beginning.

Albania's National Theatre, which was recently declared a protected monument by Europa Nostra, was unexpectedly destroyed after two years of protests, Sunday 17 May.

Early in the morning, when it was still dark, the bulldozers came. A sudden wave of policemen wearing mouth caps chased activists and artists out of the theatre and formed a cordon to keep the audience at bay. With the grace of an executioner forcing a lover to watch under duress, the National Theatre was demolished.

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You can imagine the helplessness of the public. Protests were held for two years, every night, with speeches, artists' exhibitions, concerts and theatre performances. And there was hope: Europa Nostra, the Brussels-based European federation of NGOs (president Plácido Domingo) dedicated to the preservation of cultural heritage, recently placed the theatre on a list of recognised monuments. To no avail.

Naturally, the necessary arrests of protesters followed and there has been outrage in the (international) press. Dutchman Vincent van Gerven Oei who once fled the Dutch art climate to Tirana (interview with him on Culture Press) drafted a letter with Jonida Gashi that was signed by many who did not fear reprisals. See a article in the US online physician magazine Hyperallergic.

TED

Reprisals? That's right. In their view, there is more going on than the loss of a unique theatre building. The covert demolition of the theatre, a result of a decision taken at lightning speed a few days earlier in a climate of Covid restrictions, is, according to many, the sign of a dictatorship. As earlier Van Gerven Oei argued: when an ex-artist comes to power, things can get dangerous.

He is referring to the man who had the capital Tirana decked out in attractive, fresh colours, who Speaking about it in a TED Talk ('reconquer your city with paint'), about whom a video portrait is part of a collection at the Tate Gallery, the man who gained prestige at international exhibitions but also in the European political climate: prime minister Edi Rama.

Dictatorship

Once I sat next to him in a great seafood restaurant. Back then he was just mayor with a blonde beauty by his side. The man has charisma and unprecedented ambition, it turns out. I understand him too: you want to drive your country and your city forward, into the 21st century. You can't please everyone with that. For an average tourist, the National Theatre was not really startling, the somewhat megalomaniacal design for a new theatre thus aligns with larger ambitions.

Regrettably, however, the current generation was very emotionally attached to the old building. It symbolised the shaking off of Enver Hoxha's previous dictatorship, a future of freedom and a new democratic rule of law. With a brutal act, that symbol was wiped off the map, democracy already was. The harsh reality is that Albania is joining the EU, and larger political powers want to expand their sphere of influence.

More cultural buildings are expected to disappear. The Netherlands, too, will see - with a reference to Corona - how important culture still is. In Tirana, a two-year-long protest by artists did not survive, despite international support from many prominent figures. Art serving policymakers, however, that will always be the future.