TIRANA, April 17 – During an interview for the TV show “Opposite” broadcasted by the public broadcaster of Albania, President Ilir Meta said the European Commission should bring experts from Brussels to assess how successfully the justice reform has been implemented.
During the interview, he said the justice reform was mainly directed towards particular judges, rather than towards democratic standards.
“I’m not an embassies’ president. Sometimes ambassadors create more chaos than they speak the truth. The EC should bring experts from Brussels to see how the justice reform has been implemented.This is what Danielsson also said. Civil society reacted, according to me, as was the case of the Helsinki Commission and the Open Society Foundation – a reaction that should be taken seriously. The president has done everything to prevent such a crisis,” Meta said.
Meta also said the current deadlock the country is facing actually stems from the constitutional changes that happened in 2008.
“The crisis is constitutional and deep. Early roots derive from the constitutional changes of 2008 and continue with the constitutional changes of 2017. The lack of dialogue between the majority and the opposition are not new developments in Albania,” Meta added.
Further on, he said that under Prime Minister Edi Rama’s rule, democracy has taken steps backwards.
“We have made steps behind in parliamentary democracy and made steps towards arbitrary leadership. Without changing the electoral system it is difficult to change the leaders. Do not forget that we are a country that has an authoritarian legacy and because of this gravity any space left to the leader leads to authoritarianism,” Meta said.
