FLASH
Shkruar nga Mero Baze
With this precedent, any elected official in Albania can be investigated, arrested, then after three months, regardless of the process, he can be dismissed and the duties given to him by the citizens taken away...
The court hearing on the legitimacy of Erion Veliaj's dismissal from the Tirana Municipal Council is one of the few court hearings in the world where everyone is satisfied with all the results. The reason is that the parties are not in battle with each other, but each separately with the Constitutional Court.
The Socialists want Veliaj's dismissal to remain in effect, because they need a mayor in Tirana and the city is deteriorating day by day. The new appointees do some of their own work, but not the city's work.
So, more than dismissing Veliaj, they need permission to elect a new mayor. Veliaj needs the legal battle, not to remain mayor of Tirana, but to complete the appeal process, which immediately after the Constitutional Court goes to Strasbourg.
If the Court upholds the dismissal, which would be the most difficult option, Veliaj becomes even more victimized and gains the right to go to Strasbourg sooner. So, it is not that he is being personally harmed. In this case, too, his battle is not with the socialists, but with the procedure.
The only one that is fighting with itself is the Constitutional Court. It is before the creation of a precedent to judge the legitimacy of the dismissal of a mayor, who was arrested from office during an investigation process, without being charged, and because he was kidnapped from office, was then dismissed even though the kidnapping from office was not his responsibility.
With this precedent, any elected official in Albania can be subject to investigations, arrested, then after three months, regardless of the process, he can be dismissed and stripped of the duties given to him by the citizens.
This is a problem only for the Constitutional Court. Not for Erion Veliaj, who practically has his legal battle as an objective, nor for the socialists, who have a problem with the governance of Tirana.
And the Constitutional Court must resolve this dilemma by deciding more for its own dignity than for the problems of the socialists and Veliaj, each for his own account.
But reviewed in light of recent developments, a decision that protects the legitimacy of those elected by the people and the non-removal of their mandate through kidnapping from office would postpone the elections in Tirana to 2027, if Veliaj did not then resign himself a few months later.
But even this could save everyone, socialists and democrats. So as the campaign is going on, it is good for the DP and SP not to continue.
The Socialists have a candidate with a certain electoral victory, but without any political emotion. It is in a way a campaign where even so, the Socialists seem more like they are nominating someone as president than electing them.
Voter turnout will be low, the elections will be unenthusiastic, and the new mayor will suffer, unfairly, from the election conjuncture more than her own abilities.
The opposition, on the other hand, is in an unusual situation, with a candidate who treats opposition leaders like lepers who should not be approached because they infect him, and they only hold meetings in secret, while he fights on TikTok. This will not change the result.
The opposition will give him the vote, which does not make him the winner, and Berisha will then have a new headache within the opposition, because the situation there is so dark that people are ready to vote for someone who will not even shake their hand. And this will be a tax that he will then pay again in the 2027 elections.
So even though they don't say it, a decision by the Constitutional Court that leaves Veliaj in power as mayor saves both parties: the socialists from a campaign imposed by political justice, and the opposition from a campaign distanced from political figures.
But of course the Court doesn't have to take this into account. It's on trial with itself tomorrow. It just needs to know that the interested parties, in any case, are won.
Lini një Përgjigje