ISSN: 2560-1601

Vol. 17, No. 1 (Al)

April 2019

Albania political briefing: Parliamentary 101 (?) Marsela Musabelliu

1052 Budapest Petőfi Sándor utca 11.

+36 1 5858 690 Kiadó: Kína-KKE Intézet Nonprofit Kft. office@-cee.eu Szerkesztésért felelős személy: Chen Xin

Kiadásért felelős személy: Huang Ping china-cee.eu 2017/01

Parliamentary Republic 101 (?)

The Albanian opposition has decided to abandon the Parliament since February 18th 2019 and at the same time chose to gather its supporters on weekly bases on the streets of the capital and in front of the same building which legitimacy they disregarded. The more days go through, the less support is noted for the opposition, internally and internationally. The extreme measure of going out of the system might turn into a boomerang for the PD and LSI. This ‘all or nothing’ approach might threaten the very existence of these parties, now in a political crossroad.

The new members and the controversy After the collective renouncement of the mandates of the opposition, 57 vacancies in the parliament were created. The Chair of the Parliament addressed the Central Electoral Commission (KQZ) to demand the fulfillment of these 57 vacancies. Most of the vacancies were soon filled with the next on the list candidate of Parties; now these PMs are member of the parliament but are expelled from their own parties! As of beginning of April the total number of Parliament Members (PMs) is 101. With this number of PMs even constitutional changes can occur and this is political territory never explored before. There are two opposing reaction to the situation: alarmism and indifferentism. The alarmists, usually aligned with the opposition, that this is the collapse of the system entirely and the substitute PMs do not represent the popular will of their party, thus, everyone who accepted the deputy role is not exactly a representative chosen by free will of voters. The indifferents, usually aligned with the Socialist, argue that this situation is entirely legit and this is what the Electoral System created and accepted by both main parties, dictates – a closed list proportional representation.

Could this extreme measure of abandoning the Parliament backfire on the opposition? The main component that makes the protests valuable and effective is the number of participants. With every protest of the opposition the participation is getting lower and this is worrying not a few in the PD and LSI. Perhaps for this reason, in search of international support, Basha traveled to form where he met with representatives of the CDU and the Bundestag to inform them on the political situation in , while the protest in the capital was led by the Youth Forum of the Democratic Party (FRPD).

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On the other hand, Prime Edi Rama has intensified his rallies, starting to proclaim candidates for the next Local Elections, which could as well not happen at all. During his visit in North Albania, the Prime Minister was not smooth on the narrative and used strong words for and to the opposition: exterminate and discard! He claimed that the Socialist Party is now stronger than ever and the move of the PD will pave the end of its political life altogether. On the third month of an artificial crisis created by the opposition, just like at beginning of this protests, the solution seems a distant reality. The Prime Minister and the majority of the Parliament don’t appear willing to take any step back. Rama states that there will be no negotiation or as he calls “bargaining” with an opposition which deliberately exited itself out of the system and wants political power without fair electoral competition. Equally determined appears to be the PD leader Basha; he insists that this crisis can be overcome only through snap elections, after Rama has firstly departed and a transitional is created. In these conditions, after nearly two months of political chaos, it seems that the crisis is deepening and the parties are not able to find common grounds. The scenarios for emerging out of this crisis are numerous, ranging from international negotiation to a new Rama-Basha deal,i despite the fact that the latter is strongly opposed by both leaders.

The President and his melodrama The President of Albania, Mr. Ilir Meta, is present in the political scenario for almost three decades. He has been member of the Socialist Party, escalated the ranks to become Prime Minister from 1999 to 2002; in 2004 he formed the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI) creating so a schism within the left and by 2009 he allied with right and served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and in 2011 was nominated Minister of Economy. However, in the general elections of 2013, he abandoned the Democratic Party and re-aligned with the Socialist and after the elections he was nominated Chairman of the Parliament until he was elected President of the Republic in April 2017. According to the Albanian Constitution, Article 89: “The President of the Republic shall not hold any other public position, shall not be a member of a party and may not carry out other private activity” - for this reason Meta resigned from all political duties in the Socialist Movement for Integration and the leadership of the party went to his wife, Monika Kryemadhi, now in the forefront of the protest, again switching to an alliance with the right. Meta and his wife are by all consideration a controversial ‘power-couple’ in the Albanian political scenario. They have placed themselves and their party in numerous internal

2 confrontations, has managed to be the only counterbalance on the bipolarization (left/right) of the country and in the last elections achieved 16 seats in the parliament; besides their involvement in high governmental position has been shadowed by a series of corruption allegations (the most famous of all is the taped on video in 2011 Meta asking the former Minister of Economy Dritan Prifti to intervene over a hydropower plant concession tender, naming an alleged recompense by a businessman of a seven per cent stake and €700,000 bribe.) Added to alleged shady deals, the frequent switch of alliance has made this political force quite unreliable, for the voters and for their allies, so in order to keep LSI “quiet”, the left and the right, when in power granted this party an important department, a Ministry, the chairmanship of the Parliament, or as in the current situation, the Notwithstanding, as of April 2019, the situation is largely uncertain, and the President is trying to play a role of check and balance for the political forces. Lately, President Meta, astonished the public opinion with some unexpected comments on the political crisis by arguing that is important to avoid any escalation of the crisis, which may lead to confrontations. Albania does not fall short of historical references for this kind of troubled situations and many times have seriously affected the interest of the country, have violated the lives, rights and property of citizens and delayed the integration processes of Albania. The President called upon both political forces to put aside their personal ambitions and come together for a solution by stating: “Even though I have no responsibility for this situation that has been created I am again ready to sacrifice myself in the name of a political solution that reshapes the constitutional, institutional, political, democratic normality in the country and guarantees the rapid progress towards the opening of EU negotiations, I am ready for the two extremes - I can start for resigning my mandate as President, after I have been assured that the country has a principled, constitutional and solid political solution up to the sacrifice of my own life as Salvador Allende in order to stop the installation of a junta that could send Albania 30 years backwards.” ii These comment form the President in the current situation sound inflated and out of order. He was addressing the public opinion firstly, the governing party and the opposition. The first is negligent to what Meta has to say or observe, besides the small portion of the followers of his former LSI, the left leaning voters see him as a threat and the right leaning voters do not view him as steady ally but just a political opportunist. The Socialist Party cut ties with him since his proclamation as President and has been viewing the office he holds as an obstacle to absolute power in the country; let’s just remind

3 here Meta’s adverse position on the nomination of the Minister of Foreign Affairs over whose designation created an institutional clash of the PM and the President in January. The opposition forces led by the Democratic Party now have in their midst the LSI, Meta’s former party, the leader of which happens to be his wife – so there is a clear conflict of interest in this scenario, thus no declaration coming from this camp can be taken at face value. The office of the President in Albania, due to its limited duties and responsibilities, holds mainly a symbolic significance; however, Meta with his unconventional political behavior has sought to make his presence more felt than any of his predecessors. Still, if there will be a solution to this abnormal political situation it will not come from the President, he has too little power and too much of a controversial past to serve as a uniting force between the parties.

The US Deputy Assistant Matthew Palmer visits Tirana As part of his tour, Matthew Palmer met with all high representatives of the political spectrum in Albania. During a wrap-up press conference in the US embassy in Tirana he stated that Rama government is the legitimate one, created after the win of democratic elections thus the US is cooperating with it. He stated clearly that his visit in Albania is not accompanied with a platform to resolve the crisis nor to negotiate a particular solution. The US high official urged all political parties to take part in local elections; participation in the democratic process is essential - he stated - something that political parties owe their supporters to their voters to enter the political arena, to compete vigorously, win the elections, and use the victory as a means of fulfilling their promises and vision for the future.iii Palmer argued that tools such as boycotting the elections or ‘burning’ mandates are fundamentally contrary to democratic practices. He further urged the opposition parties to look for ways to rejoin the political process as an opportunity for dialogue with the Government. He also displayed the US official position stating that Albania has a government that has been elected according to the rules, is a partner of the United States, with whom the State Department works well and closely. The solution, according to Palmer, should be found in inner negotiations between parties. Yet again, an international official declaration, backing up the Government and schooling the opposition; nevertheless, this is in line with historical attitude of foreign officials in times of crisis in Albania, backing the legitimate/elected ruling party and instructing the opposition in finding common grounds for negotiations.

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Final considerations This artificial political crisis created by the opposition creates two main concerns with regard to the present and the future of the country. In the present it is keeping an entire nation hostage of their will to boycott and not participate in a system created by them; for the future it creates a pointless precedent on forthcoming generations of politicians and oppositions. The system accepted by the majority of Albanians is not a tabula rasa where any political actor can start writing their own rules – it consists of a Constitution, a Government, a Parliament and a legal framework; the system and the rules already exist and a solution within the system should be found, not outside of it. In 2019, the country and its citizens are not willing to start a new chapter on the Parliamentary Republic 101.

i A similar situation with the opposition (not in the same scale) occurred in 2017 and in that stance, through international intervention Rama and Basha reached a deal over resolving the political stalemate over general elections held that year. Both leaders then express their gratitude to the USA and the EU on the contribution made for consolidation of and the in Albania. The agreement carried the commitment of both sides to holding elections up to democratic standards and that would be a contribution of the two sides for opening of the negotiations and advance of the country in the process of European integration. ii Available at: http://www.kohajone.com/2019/03/20/deklarata-e-plote-e-presidentit-ilir-meta-per-krizen- politike-ne-vend/ iii Available at: https://balkanweb.com/palmer-qeveria-legjitime-partite-te-futen-ne-zgjedhje-me-30-qershor/

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