Political row at the Culture Committee keeps artists waiting at the door as Zhupa attacks Rama over the UN and the Security Council

Songwriters invited to give their suggestions on the copyright bill had to wait outside the door of the Culture, Tourism and Diaspora Committee until a political debate between majority and opposition members was over.

In a long off-agenda opening, committee chair Ina Zhupa mocked Monday’s National Security Council meeting, Prime Minister Edi Rama’s participation at the UN and the statement he made a day earlier upon arriving at Rinas airport.

“Today the culprits gathered to discuss how to cover up the latest scandal. A meeting of Edi Rama’s employees and appointees, 90% of whom themselves have files at SPAK, supposed to discuss how to resolve the national security issue. Those who caused it cannot be the same ones to find the solution… The biggest concern was why Vlora Hyseni’s messages came out, in which she also talks about meetings with the prime minister. And that is the tip of the iceberg. What we saw with Edi Rama at the UN was the clearest picture of what is happening. Nobody met him. All the region’s prime ministers had a public list of meetings. Rama met only Balla and Ndreu, but he didn’t need to pay that much! Shame on what you have reduced Albania to. Edi Rama has lost legitimacy,” Zhupa said.

Zhupa’s comments at every recent committee meeting have become monotonous for the Socialists, who consider them unnecessary, TCH reports.

“I’m used to these openings by now, they no longer impress me. We have always said that justice must not be influenced by political appetites. Second, responsibilities for such matters belong to justice, and we await their positions without commenting,” said Erion Malaj, a Socialist MP.

“The prime minister went to the UN for the General Assembly. You know that today we are better positioned in the region than ever, closer than ever to EU integration, and an ally of the US in every initiative they have.”

“It has never happened that a prime minister goes to the UN and sits there like a wallflower,” Zhupa said.

“Vučić spoke about Kosovo and tore it apart, and there was no one to stand up in its defense.”

“This is the umpteenth time you are turning the committee into a rostrum. This is the Culture Committee. Don’t feed us political propaganda — we remember how arrest warrants used to come down when you were in government for people you kept at the top of their posts,” said Socialist MP Arkend Balla.

Zhupa went on repeating the Democrats’ demand for a transitional government, warning that until then, this is how committee meetings will begin.