How Albania plunged into crisis: All You Need to Know

Albania is in a political and institutional crisis. Opposition parties, the Democratic Party and the Socialist Movement for Integration, They burned their warrants.They have decided not to participate in elections. The opposition cause joins President Ilir Meta's decision, which annulled the decree on the date of local elections, ahead of June 30th. But in all this situation, The Ruling Socialist Party, has already decided to ignore the opposition, and neither the president, showing her determination to hold the elections, Report REL.

On the eve of local elections, the country appears to have also plunged into a constitutional crisis with the lack of the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court in Albania remained out of office and provisionally closed, as of its nine members, three have resigned or finished mandates, four have collapsed in the property process (dividing or detailed control for public officials) and only two have survived. Meanwhile, Parliament failed to appoint new members.

Opinionists in Albania say this crisis is only moving deeper. They do not anticipate resolving the crisis without a dialogue between power and opposition with the involvement of the international community.

Although holding opposing positions, they share the same view that Albania has indeed entered a deep political crisis, which is going into a social crisis.

How did it begin?

Liberal Journal Director and political science professor Ervis Iljazaj says Albania is in this situation because the Albanian opposition has long condemned the theft of votes in 2017 or are claiming that holding fair elections in Albania is impossible with Prime Minister Edi Rama.

“We have come into this crisis because the sides are extremely opposed in their positions. The opposition demands Edi Rama's departure from the prime minister because he thinks that free and fair elections cannot be held with him at the head of the government because of the relations this government and prime minister have with persons with criminal precedents and because of their use during the election campaign and during the” election process, says Iljazaj.

In that sense, he emphasises, the country is in this crisis because both political sides -- the Socialist Party and the Democratic Party -- have extremely opposite positions which are bringing more and more political conflict to Albania.

On the other hand, the opinionist and Gazeta Director Mero Base says this political stalemate in the country has resulted from reform in justice, which, according to him, produced two political blocks committed for and against it.

The “was and continues to be a battle, which in one arm is listed by the United States of America, the European Union and part of the Albanian policy supporting reform, and a broad coalition already open against it, which the only mechanism to halt reform naturally has created a deep political crisis. I think that's where they succeeded. Albania is in a political crisis caused by those political factors that were sworn in, in some way, against reform when it started to implement”, Base says.

President's Decree and Local Elections

President Ilir Meta had canceled the decree on the election date, saying this decision has come as a result of “deep concern for the critical situation created in the country as a result of non-reflectation of either side”.

Both opinionists, Base and Iljazaj hold opposing positions in terms of this decision.

Mr. Base says the president is in charge of setting the date, but he has no authority to keep the country without an election.

The political, legal act of leaving the country without an election date is unprecedented. It's something that doesn't exist. So at this point the president has managed to create an institutional crisis. Thus, using the absence of the Constitutional Court, which would immediately issue the verdict on this matter”, he points out.

While, according to Ervis Iljazaj, the president has not stripped Albanians of the right to vote, but has simply suspended the date of the vote, given the political situation in the country. In the absence of the Constitutional Court, he says, the debate on the president's decree to annul elections should focus on whether it is right or not.

The Constitution has not in vain granted this authority to the president to set the election date. The president of the Republic, since it represents national unity, while maintaining the institutional balance before setting a date or before decreeing local elections in Albania, the Constitution provides an opportunity to assess the political situation, to assess the social situation”, says Iljazaj.

When and how can this crisis be solved?

To resolve a situation, you need to deal with the core of the crisis. The core of the crisis is reform in justice”, recurse Mero Base.

He says the crisis is in reform, while the consequences are on the political system, in Parliament, in the elections.

“Albania is continuing to be devastated by remaining without a representative Parliament, without competitive elections. On June 30th, voting can be held, but they are not competitive elections”, says Base.

While Ilyzaj thinks that sooner or later, the international community will be the one to intervene.

I think that the internationals, sooner or later, will intervene to solve the crisis. The first signals have started and in this sense an opportunity the political parties in Albania had to solve this conflict, but this time again they did not let us down and they couldn't solve it, and the international decision” is expected, says Iljazaj.

Albania has been a NATO member since 2009. It has been granted EU candidate status in 2014, and weeks ago the European Commission has recommended opening Albania's membership negotiations in the European Union.

Prime Minister Rama has not denied his fears that recent developments in the country could exacerbate the start of membership negotiations.

Since February, the opposition organised nine protests in Tirana At the request for the departure of Prime Minister Edi Rama, considering it unacceptable to be at the helm of the Albanian government at the time of holding elections.

Opposition requests and protests on the departure of Prime Minister Edi Rama have intensified even after the publication of phone wiretapping by the German newspaper “BILD”, where Socialist politicians and former leaders of Rama Government discuss maximum voting results, are suspected to be involved in manipulation of the election process.

Currently, the situation is seen to be in a dead end, while the solution is preferred to be sought through a dialogue facilitated by the external factor, in this case the European Union, taking into account Albania's ambitions that as soon as it starts EU membership negotiations, what domestic political stability will be a necessary criterion.