Dodging the Executive Bullet

What seemed impossible a few months ago happened last week. In a letter to Parliament on October 13th the President refused to follow-up on the recommendations of Parliament to sack Prosecutor General Sollaku. The letter elucidated five reasons for the President’s decision which centered around the claim that by judging the legality of the decisions of the Prosecutor General, the parliament’s special committee was behaving like a judicial body thus infringing on the independence of the judiciary. Moreover, 5 of the 7 commission members that came from the ruling majority were in the list of deputies that demanded the set-up of the commission to investigate Sollaku in the first place. Hence, the President deemed that they had already judged Mr. Sollaku before the start of the parliamentary investigation.
The majority’s reaction to the President’s decision was rather more sophisticated than what we have come to expect. Regime figures which are expected to protect state institutions even when this goes against their immediate party interests such as the Prime Minister or the Speaker of Parliament expressed their strong discontent but did not challenge the President’s decision. On the other hand, party figures such as the deputy leader of the DP caucus Mr. Nishani claimed that if the President had “a shred of human dignity” left in him he would resign. According to him, the decision was dictated by state capture by organized crime. The Minister of Justice promptly set up an independent group of inspectors to investigate Mr. Sollakuء move which raises concerns about the relationship between MoJ and the judiciary. But, difficult as it is to feel one’s way above daily ‘din and glory’ of Albanian politics, the President’s decision has brought the country to a momentous stage of its democratic consolidation.
Albania’s fifteen year long democratic experience has been characterized by an overpowering executive that could bend other institutions to its will. Since the executive is in control of the civil service and the coercive state apparatus, this is neither extraordinary nor easy to correct. The only thing standing between democracy and government by Henry VIII clauses has been the consensual belief on democracy as a good political system that we need to work towards. Yet, so far the strength of democracy has depended on executive good will or the ability of the head of the executive branch to ignore the siren call of exercising power to its fullest. It is no wonder that the executive leaders of this country have not been able to resist running roughshod over other democratic institutions in order to gain the popular recognition which politicians generally fight for. It is from the understanding that Aristotle’s “political man” has a poor sense of his own limits that the Romans replaced him with the sociale animale and the Greek polis was diluted with the civitas that was organized juridically rather than purely politically. In this sense, modern democracy may be thought of as Athenian freedom tempered by law.
The President’s decision may have created the precedent we need to bind Aristotle’s “political animal.” If we examine the position of the majority from a purely Machiavellian perspective, it needs not listen to the President. In fact, a rational President would not have even tempted to stand on the way of such a determined majority. But he did, and through his stand he injected new vigour in the country’s democracy. The majority aware of its hard powers but somewhat mindful of the constitution and democratic requirements temporarily lost its footing with some representatives asking the President to resign while others recognizing his decision. In the process, Mr. Berisha who spent an entire year accusing Mr. Sollaku of all the seven deadly sins lost considerable political face. Mr. Sollaku won a reprieve that may prove only a temporary extension of his personal agony. By signing his letter to Parliament on October 13th, Mr. Moisiu signed away any hopes for his reelection. All the political animals lost. But, Albanian democracy won.