Between smoke bombs and flying shoes, stolen voting cards and false votes, the parliamentary season of 2017 came to an end, the first one with an absolute majority of the Socialists, led by Gramoz Ruçi. The result has been the election of a Temporary General Prosecutor, a function unaccounted for in the Constitution.
The two sides are making up the balance and for sure each of them will claim that the other will have suffered a terrible defeat – and both are right.
The Socialist majority has lost an excellent opportunity to show that it respects the rules, showing a greed for power that hasn’t been seen before in the history of the transition.
On the contrary, Edi Rama showed the world his ill-advised stubbornness which led to the voting fiasco in Parliament, and later took on the role, like an ordinary mayor, of a sorrowful man visiting police officers wounded during the protests.
But nevertheless, he has a Temporary General Prosecutor, trusted, with a secure background and education. And he showed the power of his numbers, which everyone knows, and how to use this power, which everyone fears.
The bipartisan “trust” in the judicial reform has been slaughtered, while the credibility of the US Ambassador, the incontestable champion of legal and constitutional logic, has now been irreparably compromised.
A judicial reform at any costs, even the cost of the violation the constitution by one side against the other, the violation of any neutrality, with the only aim of showing force, considering the fact that the Temporary General Prosecutor has no competence whatsoever (at least so they say), should not be anything to be proud of, and is certainly not a good result for Albanian society, It can only be considered a “result” from the perspective of political domination, of coming out on top over the opposition, in order to mock and ridicule it.
At the same time, the opposition didn’t manage to block the Parliament – something that was obvious from the beginning – but above all failed to convey a clear message to the people, which as it seems will have to wait until he end of the festivities to see some type of credible opposition. In fact, the common gathering of the opposition and the final parliamentary session was closed with a postponement until after the holidays – the constitutional crisis can wait, we’ll decide in the new year.
The fact that the LSI did not accept to hand in their parliamentary mandates, won “with blood and sweat,” remains incomprehensible, if it is indeed true that the majority, with the justification that it has the votes to do whatever they want, doesn’t respect the parliamentary regulations or the Constitution. What will Monika Kryemadhi do with her “precious” mandates? She will only be able to show that she’s “glued to her seat.”
In the same way, the leaders of the PD show their inability to find to find a common stance to broaden the alliance of protesters with the many members of Albanian society which continue to express their unhappiness with the situation, but so far have not accepted to take to the streets in response of the PD.
Among the many reflections of Basha and Kryemadhi perhaps the most important one is missing: how do we become credible, while taking into account our past.
The one who has lost almost everything is the Albanian society, which will continue to pay the price of a dictatorship of state capitalism which offers no guarantees whatsoever, and which as a result will for a long time remain outside Europe, unless of course everyone emigrates by themselves.
