President Ilir Meta considers the June 30 local elections “socialist polls” and “a shame for the country,” implying that he doesn’t recognize them.
At a press conference today, the President proposed a new solution for resolving the current political and constitutional crisis: local elections, general elections, as well as presidential elections on the same date, October 13. President Meta had earlier already moved the local elections to that same date.
The President accused the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama of an “underground agendas” aimed at capturing the state, while he also attacked foreign diplomats, alluding to the fact that they are part of an anti-constitutional secret agenda and to the detriment of Albanians.
The President claimed that he had warned the opposition “not to fall prey to the provocations of a structured group he called PPPd”:
P-politicians, P-propaganda, and P-police, not as in “police” but as police-like roads that blackmail citizens, journalists, politicians, while the lowercase d are the diplomats who have abandoned their countries’ agenda and behave according to Rama’s liking.
President Meta went on to say that this PPPd group operates through the principle of state capture and implied that Prime Minister Rama is merely the person being used by them:
The PPPd is a group that works according to deep-state principle to capture the state, […] and have found the right man to do so, who does not come to meet the President, but takes a swim in the pool.
Regarding the claim of the Socialist majority and internationals that the elections should have been held not to set a precedent for the future, President Meta stated that they “don’t care about the precedent but the experiment” and insisted that no longer allowed to “mock Albania”.
Subsequently, the President addressed the resolution of the current crisis, which he considered a crisis not only of the two sides, but of the state itself. He stressed that the elections are scheduled on October 13 and considered the actions of the Central Election Commission (KQZ) that ignored his decree “idiotic.”
He added that he has not asked for the departure of Rama as the opposition has demanded, but proposed comprehensive elections, whether local, whether parliamentary, or even presidential if necessary:
It is in the interest of all Albanians who want to choose their leaders and their representatives, but this is the responsibility of both parties and of others involved in this Albanian game against the European principles and principles that our alliance stands for […] both general elections and presidential elections, and will be in the running.
He further address the Justice Reform, calling it a “Ramaform,” and billing its botched implementation with the opposition’s departure from Parliament and the escalation of the political crisis. “Ramaform,” so explained President Meta,
is a colony of criminal tyranny and a regent of a worldwide foundation [referring to George Soros].
As today also marks the 29th anniversary of the events of July 2, 1990, when thousands of Albanians sought refuge in Western embassies in Tirana, Meta stressed several times that the same massive exodus should not be allowed to repeat itself. The President insisted that only elections and overcoming the crisis before October 17 and 18, when a decision on the opening of accession negotiations will be made by the European Council, could save the country from another failure.
