Saimir Tahiri was removed from the Ministry of Interior Affairs due to the pressure of several EU countries, including Germany and France. Different from the claims of Albanian political analysts, which mainly refer to gossip from the opposite camp as “analysis,” his departure was the result of a choice between the removal of Tahiri or foreign politicians openly expressing their support for the opposition’s cause concerning the relations between crime and politics. The combination of foreign pressure and the opposition protests removed the most important person for Edi Rama in his government.
But inexplicably, instead of using this forced move to eclipse or delegitimize the opposition’s cause by replacing Tahiri with a publicly acceptable figure – someone with an unsoiled record and bureaucratic skills – Edi Rama nominated perhaps the least appropriate figure, Fatmir Xhafaj.
A former investigator of the communist regime, whether or not he has taken part in political trials, the former no. 2 of the communist youth movement, suspected of corruption during the Nano government, and with strong ties to drug trafficking – Fatmir Xhafaj is the incarnation of the reason why the opposition left Parliament and sought the removal of Edi Rama.
We can only guess why Rama chose Xhafaj, but everyone can agree that he was neither chosen to guarantee free and fair elections, nor to pacify the LSI or the opposition.
As could be expected, the nomination of Fatmir Xhafaj has energized and empowered the accusations of the opposition: the opposition immediately managed to publicly portray Xhafaj not only as investigator, but even as harsh investigator or investigator of the secret service, and as a person with direct links to drugs trade. To its advantage, public opinion didn’t respond well to his nomination. At the end of the day, everyone understood that someone whose brother is internationally wanted shouldn’t be nominated to a position that has the duty to execute international warrants and arrest his brother.
Xhafaj’s nomination had another effect. The publication of his past and his supposed links to crime raised doubts, if not discredited, the judicial reform, which Rama’s has used to discredit the opposition’s boycott of Parliament. Because it is not very credible that people related to crime are so worried about the corruption of the judicial system.
The opposition mobilized itself to discredit Xhafaj and the spur of the moment made them swear in banal manner that Xhafaj would only enter office over their dead bodies.
But in fact Minister of Interior Affairs Xhafaj is the greatest gift that could be given to the opposition.
Now that the President has decreed Xhafaj, the PS has a reason that everyone can understand and believe to demand a caretaker government and not to take part in the June 18 elections. Xhafaj’s nomination may even bring more people to feel closer to the opposition’s positions.
This is also the reason that Nishani decreed Fatmir Xhafaj. He got the possibility not only to lend a hand to the opposition, but even to do so while looking like a statesman who holds the Constitution in his highest regard. Opposition leader Lulzim Basha didn’t waste a minute to praise the President as such, a few minutes after he declared that Xhafaj doesn’t deserve to become minister, but that he has no constitutional possibility of preventing this.
