Today, the Albanian Constitutional Court will decide on the request of the parliamentary majority to dismiss President Ilir Meta.
The hearing is scheduled to start at 10 am. A decision is not expected as today’s proceedings will constitute the start of the hearing.
In June 2021, 104 deputies out of 140 in parliament, minus the Democratic Party, who resigned their mandates in protest in 2019, voted to dismiss Meta. They accuse him of making statements that incited violence and were unconstitutional prior to and during the April 2021 elections.
The Socialist Party, however, had been looking for a way to remove him since June 1019 when Meta refused to approve the date of local elections. The elections went ahead anyway, and the PS swept to victory in almost all municipalities, plunging Albania into a de facto single-party state.
If the Court sides with parliament’s decision, Meta must vacate his office before the end of his five-year term, which is due to expire in July this year.
Meta considers the inquiry illegal, does not accept the accusations of the PS majority, says the decision to dismiss him is unconstitutional and is “orchestrated by the SP for political revenge.”
