In a press conference today, Speaker of Parliament and leader of the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI) leader Ilir Meta refused to comment on the dismissal yesterday of LSI Minister of Justice Ylli Manjani.
Yesterday Erisa Xhixho and parliamentary group leader Luan Rama have spoken about this.
There are very important matters to discuss today, that require our engagement and concentration, such as the electoral reform.
Each minister or former minister, when there are facts, has to follow the institutional road. No more distractions. I am in favor of the institutional road in the battle against negative phenomena. Citizens are tired of the incriminatory rhetoric of politics. Who goes beyond this principal institutional message has their responsibility.
Speaker Meta, however addressed several topics, including the relations within the government coalition, the case of Klement Balili, electoral reforms, and the problem of drug cultivation in Albania.
When asked by journalists whether the dismissal of Manjani was a sign of his surrender to Prime Minister Edi Rama, Speaker Meta answered:
Ilir Meta does not surrender for any sort of pressure, neither from Rama nor from Berisha, Basha, nor inside the LSI.
Addressing the question why the LSI does not leave the coalition government with the PS after the many internal conflicts between the two parties, Meta declared:
The LSI is not just an extra party. If Rama today would manage to gather 71 mandates in a legitimate way, the LSI would immediately join the opposition. If on June 19, Edi Rama or Lulzim Basha gather 71 mandates, the LSI will be in the opposition.
Last week, Speaker Meta asked President Bujar Nishani to assemble the National Security Council to discuss the case of Klement Balili, who is still in hiding, after returning from the inauguration of US President Donald Trump:
During my visit in the USA, the only concern of the American agencies which they ask me to focus the attention of Albanian authorities and institutions on, was the fact that Klement Balili had not been arrested.
He also mentioned the importance of implementing the electoral reform package:
The LSI is ready to be locked down somewhere to come up with a solution to the recommendations of OSCE-ODIHR and the reasonable requests of the parties. The electoral reform should have been finished on time.
Finally, Speaker Meta addressed the issue of the widespread drug cultivation in the country, one of the topics on which former Minister Manjani had been particularly explicit:
The phenomenon of the spread of cannabis across the country has to end once and for all. We no longer want to see the police pulling out cannabis plants. The police and other institutions need to prevent it. That is the power of the state.
