"Ajola Xoxa almost found her nest"/ Journalist: Artists wanted to be corrupted

2025-03-07 08:24:00, Politikë CNA

"Ajola Xoxa almost found her nest"/ Journalist: Artists wanted to be

Culture journalist Elsa Demo has spoken about the details emerging from the court's decision on the investigations against Mayor Erion Veliaj and his wife Ajola Xoxa.

The journalist revealed details from the file about how artists were bought by the mayor, paying for them with expensive projects using Albanian taxes.

Invited to MCN TV, Demo said that projects were won without competition and not at all based on merit.

The journalist also emphasizes the artists' own desire to be corrupted.

"It was very important, that by taking a few examples, that in terms of financial value were not bombastic like the case of Driant Zeneli, it was important to prove the other side, that he did not benefit from financial sums but from a career.

Driant Zeneli is the executive director of the Harabel Center, the parent center from which the other centers emerged. His case was important to say how far we have come. He represented Albania at the Venice Biennale without competition. Ajola Xoxa almost found the nest of corruption in this person. Ajola did not corrupt everyone, they were eager to be corrupted.

"The case of Driant Zeneli is important to understand that making a career in a poor country like Albania is not based on merit... The second case is Ergys Krisiko, who issues invoices as a natural person. He is an artist, a teacher. His case is flagrant, Veliaj gave him 63 million old lek for a work of art," Demo declared.

Among other things, journalist Elsa Demno shows that Veliaj has paid artists for concerts, sports or cultural activities.

"I must remember the report that SPAK issued in 2021, make no mistake, which for the period 2016-2020, had given 12 billion old lek, which includes payments in the culture and sports sector. Among them are a multitude of artists, we are calling them artists by convention. We are calling them that, because they are not actually like that. This list reveals many people from the spectrum of concerts, mass activities, not qualitative culture. Veliaj has learned this.

He has taught them so much that even in cases where he has financed quality art, Basha himself has fallen into a banality of making art, to produce five shows a year, it is impossible...", the journalist said./ CNA