FLASH
Shkruar nga Mero Baze
Sali Berisha, who is more happy that there will be no election than for the legal quality of the Court's decision, has greeted it with enthusiasm.
The Constitutional Court of Albania today suspended the decree of the President of the Republic for the elections in Tirana on November 9, announcing that it will review the case on its merits on October 31.
The decision has raised major questions about the November 9 elections in Tirana, although the Socialist Party has taken it calmly, being convinced that on October 31, the Court will dismiss Erion Veliaj's appeal for what he calls an unfair dismissal from the office of Mayor due to his absence as a pre-trial detainee.
Sali Berisha, who is more happy that there will be no election than for the legal quality of the Court's decision, has greeted it with enthusiasm.
In fact, the Constitutional Court has made a more difficult decision today than the one it will make on October 31. By suspending the Presidential Decree for the November 9 elections, the court has linked the decision to suspend the elections to the decision of the Council of Ministers requesting the announcement of elections in Tirana.
If it wanted to help the government in this case, it could separate the decree on the elections from the dismissal of Veliaj and ignore the request for suspension, telling them that they could appeal the president's decree to the administrative court. The fact that they saw it as an act related to the government's decision shows that the Constitutional Court sees the problem and the government's decision-making on the elections itself. In this spirit, if we are to consider the Court serious, it is obliged to declare the dismissal on October 31 invalid as well. But we should not bet on this.
As the press has written, this is a matter of numbers within the court and not so much a matter of principle, and some games with the lack of filling of seats that have been stuck in blocking procedures due to appeals could lead to another decision that would naturally embarrass the Court.
In all cases, even if the Court rejects Erion Veliaj's appeal for dismissal on October 31, a new decree for the elections is needed from the President, and it is needed at least a month before the election date. So in the best case scenario for the government, we have elections in the first week of December, in the worst case scenario in 2027.
However, without prejudging it, we can say that today's decision is more difficult and professionally more complete than the decision they will have to review the case on its merits on October 31.
Beyond this, it is good for politics to calm down and not turn the constitutional battle of an accused citizen into a political battle.
The concern that “Tirana cannot remain without a mayor” is a political concern, not a constitutional one. The Constitution does not recognize electoral anxiety as a criterion for justice. On the contrary, it charges the courts to stay away from political pressures and protect institutional balance – even when this is inconvenient for the government.
Today's crisis arose not because the city was left without a mayor, but because a branch of the judicial power made a disproportionate decision, which instead of weighing the public interest, completely ignored it. With a single decision, not only citizen Erion Veliaj was arrested, but also the democratic mandate of the 160 thousand citizens of Tirana who elected him.
This is the essence of injustice: when justice forgets that each of its decisions produces direct consequences on the society it serves.
The judiciary must be independent, but in no way detached from reality and social morality. Justice is not a cold laboratory of formalisms. It is a vital mechanism that keeps freedom and order in balance. When this balance is disrupted, trust is destroyed, governance is paralyzed, and the sense of justice is undermined.
Today it has become clear that the arrest of a serving mayor - without tangible evidence, without a deadline and without proportionality, has produced serious consequences for the city itself. Tirana, with all its potential and responsibilities, is being held hostage for a purpose that has nothing to do with justice, but with the political calculation of those who want to benefit from this crisis.
Erion Veliaj must be investigated, and tried, but free and in office. An open, transparent investigation, supervised every day by institutions, yes, but without abolishing the sovereign will of the citizens. Because no one, neither the court, nor politics, can set the term of a mandate that stems from the people's vote.
This is why the Constitutional Court's decision is more than a matter of law, it is a matter of direction for the state. Will it set the limits of politics in relation to the Constitution, or will it remain silent, letting the country slide towards a politics that is no longer constitutional, but simply street politics, which a state governed by law does not recognize as such?
The Constitutional Court is in fact judging, perhaps against its will, the justice system and the interference of politics in it. And a justice system that, with political inspiration, arrests an elected mayor, without even being charged and without even being tried, cannot be amnestied by the government on the grounds that it has created serious consequences for the governance of Tirana. For the consequences of a serious justice decision (and these are really serious consequences for the capital as well), we cannot take another unconstitutional step, but we must restore constitutionalism to the country and then those who cooked up this mess should also be held responsible for leaving the capital without a mayor.
In a Republic of prosecutors, one cannot become all their servants, including the government and the President, just to cover up a constitutional crime of the prosecutors. That hot potato must be left in their hands and they must face justice as people who decided to do politics with their duty and not justice.
For this reason, the Constitutional Court's decision, more than for Erion Veliaj, is valid to stop the Republic of Prosecutors from usurping the emblem of the Republic of Albania.
Lini një Përgjigje