TIRANA, Nov. 5 – After Albania’s President Ilir Meta rejected Prime Minister Edi Rama’s proposal to make Sander Lleshi the country’s new interior minister, Rama appointed Lleshi as deputy minister of interior on Monday morning.
After a meeting with the Socialist parliamentary group, Rama announced the decision through an official tweet.
“Complete agreement among the parliamentary group. The parliament will approve tomorrow the president’s decree to dismiss the former minister of interior. Sander Lleshi will head the ministry of interior as deputy minister,” Rama said.
He added there was more news to the story which he will communicate in front of the parliament on Tuesday morning.
Appointing Lleshi as deputy minister came with assigning him all ministerial rights and competences, thus giving him the leading role in the ministry of interior despite Meta’s public rejection of Rama’s proposal.
Rama’s decision came after a 90-minute meeting between him and Meta, regarding the latter’s decision to unconstitutionally reject Rama’s proposal to appoint Lleshi after Fatmir Xhafaj’s resignation last week.
Meta, after almost missing the deadline to decree Lleshi as the new MoI and hinting at a possible rejection of his appointment, announced on Sunday via a Whatsapp message for the media he rejects Rama’s proposal of Lleshi, without making his justification public.
Following this development, Meta and Rama met in private, while the Prime Minister’s office only stated the following concerning their meeting.
“Upon his request, the Prime Minister met the President of the Republic, to discuss the content of the latter’s letter regarding the proposal to decree General Sander Lleshi as the new Minister of Interior. The conversation was open and constructive and the prime minister will continue communicating with the President of the Republic,” the statement announced.
During an interview on Friday, Meta said the president is obliged to practice all his constitutional duties in order to be fully convinced for any kind of proposal brought to him to decree and added this case is particularly delicate and requires the uttermost attention.
However, local media has also reported the president’s position risks opening a constitutional conflict, and a strong clash with the government, in the current conditions when the Constitutional Court is out of order. Last year, former President Bujar Nishani who publicly spoke against appointing current Minister of Interior Fatmir Xhafaj, nonetheless accepted he did not have the competence to reject the proposal.
Meta also met with the Socialist head of parliament Gramoz Ruci following the majority’s decision to appoint Lleshi deputy minister with all the competences of the minister, but what went on during the meeting between Meta and Ruci is still unknown.
Meanwhile, analysts and independent political observers claim Albania has fallen into a sudden constitutional crisis, while also raising concerns about Lleshi’s appointment as deputy minister as unprofessional.
The hasty political developments over the last two weekends, from Xhafaj’s resignation to Meta rejecting Lleshi as the new MoI, prompted critical comments.
Political analyst Aleksander Cipa said it might open a new chapter in the conflictual relations between the president and the socialist majority and an institutional clash between PM and president.
Analyst Afrim Krasniqi said Meta’s behavior is more political than presidential and that non-decreeing a new minister puts the country in a new political crisis.
Meanwhile, analyst Lutfi Dervishi said the constitutional article that foresees appointing and dismissing ministers seems like way to impose to the president the automatic decree of every ministerial proposal coming from the prime minister.
Despite differing opinions, analysts claim Meta is trying to maintain his influence on new appointments in all institutions; in the justice system, intelligence services, government etc, and provide the role of a guarantor and constructive officer, for as long as the new names are approved by him.
