President Ilir Meta submitted classified information to the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee that is impeaching him, regarding an alleged plan by some people to set fire to the Albanian parliament building on June 8, 2019.
On the same day in June and shortly before an opposition protest, the president announced his decision to cancel the June 30 elections. Base on classified information he had received, among other reasons Meta also cited fears of unrest due to possible developments during the opposition protest.
Few days ago, Meta appeared before the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee created to impeach him over claims that his decisions to cancel the June 30 local elections and postpone them to October 13 amounted to grave constitutional violations.
On September 9, he stated that one of his main reasons for the cancellation was the classified information he received from national intelligence agencies that “certain people would exploit the announced opposition protested to set the Parliament of Albania on fire.”
“The president could not have accepted, allowed or not avoided a new Reichstag in Albania, which could have resulted not only in police officers and citizens hurt, but also in a ruined image of Albania. After this information, together with my team we thought it was the right moment to prevent an event with potential grave consequences.”
Committee members with the necessary security clearance will be able to access the information delivered today by the president.
Meta’s evoking of the Reichstag fire in Germany in 1933, few weeks after Adolf Hitler had become Chancellor, and which he used to persecute the opposition and gain absolute power, has led to comments in the media that the president feared a similar situation taking place in Albania following possible provocations on the day of protest by particular individuals.
