Albanians in the square for troubles, Gonxha in trouble for JLo

The high cost of living, the stratospheric prices of grocery stores, the inability to buy a house, primitive firefighting equipment, cash-based healthcare, the emptying of the country, and many other problems, seem not to be on the government's agenda.

And even though for 52 days, citizens have stood in the square, listing to the government every day the reasons why it should leave, the main concern of Rama and the Socialists remains the concerts of foreign artists.

After the controversy over the 4.3 million euros allocated by the government for Kanye West's concert, the Minister of Culture, Blendi Gonxhja, who was diligently engaged in selling tickets for Ye, revealed that Jennifer Lopez was also planning to hold a concert in Tirana. 

According to him, the project was not realized after the artist requested a guarantee of 2 million euros in case the concert was affected by the protests.

"We have rejected it for the moment because it asked for a 2 million euro guarantee in case there are protests. We cannot give it this guarantee ," said Gonxha.

The statement came during a clash with the head of the Culture Committee, Ina Zhupa, who demanded an account of the 4.3 million euro fund that the government allocated urgently for the Kanye West concert. The Democratic MP raised questions about the "urgency" of this funding, arguing that public funds could have been used for other priorities.

"You gave 4.3 million euros for a private concert when you had promised not to give a single lek. How do you conceive of the urgency of a planned concert? The urgency was the lack of ticket sales? What was the need to give this money? Where is the logic and urgency of a private concert? Explain to us where the 100 million euros that were supposed to come to us for tourism are? You gave the money, suppose the parliament does not approve it, what happens Mr. Gonxhe, will Kanye West return it?"

On the other hand, Gonxha defended the government's decision, arguing that the organizers had initially planned to self-finance the concert, but the situation changed when ticket sales failed.

"The administration acted according to the normative act, immediately after its publication in the Official Gazette. The concert comes as an initiative consulted with the Albanian government for 1 year, and at the beginning of this year, information was received that if it were possible from the Kanye West tour, we would give our support. At the beginning of the year, we expressed our support to the promoter for organizing this event. It was thought by the promoters that ticket sales would be guaranteed, and our support should be for other aspects."

When Zhupa confronted him with the fact that today, Albania still does not have planes to put out fires, but only shovels and picks, Gonxha called it "morality" and "hypocrisy."

In fact, the minister appeared more concerned about the image that would be created in the event of cancellation than about the million euros that were withdrawn from the emergency fund.

"The event was at risk of not being organized because the event had not guaranteed progress in self-financing the event. An event is not financed only by tickets, it is financed by a sponsor, etc. The situation was unforeseen. We do not have the luxury of comparing ourselves to foreign markets where the concert was canceled. We are neither Italy, nor the United Kingdom, nor Poland."

Thus, while citizens seek solutions to prices, salaries, housing, healthcare, fires and immigration, the government's table continues to be dominated by million-dollar concerts and guarantees for world music stars. For Albanians, the emergency remains survival; for the government, it seems that the emergency is not to fail the spectacle.