TIRANA, March 14 – As negotiations between political parties on justice reform have stalled, the idea of early elections has started to emerge in recent public declarations made by key figures from both camps.
Prime Minister Edi Rama said recently that there is a plan B in case attempts to find a compromise with the opposition fail. While Rama didn’t explicitly mention the word elections and refused to elaborate on what the plan B meant, many have interpreted his declaration as implying early elections in case a common language with the opposition is not found.
“Our aim is to pass the reform with consensus, that’s plan A. If that fails, then we move on to plan B,” Rama said when asked on how the government plans to address the issue.
Until now political parties in the country were hoping the opinion of the Venice Commission would help settle differences, but as the Commission adopted last Friday its final recommendations on the constitutional amendments and the majority and opposition remain far apart on the issue, the fate of the reform is anything but certain.
A first meeting of the ad hoc committee on justice reform failed to come up with a decision with sides split over which methodology to follow for implementing the Commission’s recommendations.
Alongside efforts of foreign ambassadors to overcome divergences, the head of the ad hoc committee on justice reform Socialist MP Fatmir Xhafaj and the committee’s deputy Democrat MP Eduart Halimi have been exchanging correspondence in an attempt to overcome the impasse, although until now everything has proved fruitless. Xhafaj proposes a 7-step process directed by experts, whereas the Democrats insist on resolving key issues through political consensus first and then involving experts. Divergences between the two sides have left the work of the ad hoc committee in the balance as there is no date yet for the implementation of the Venice Commission recommendations.
Meanwhile, Socialist MP Pandeli Majko a member of the ad hoc committee on justice reform considered the opposition’s proposal for political dialogue as “an attempt to kill the reform” and proposed the idea for early elections in case the reform fails.
“This reform is not a property of politicians as if it were for politics, justice ‘has been working fine’ until now. My proposal for the Socialist Party is either a solution or elections,” Majko wrote on Facebook, insinuating for snap elections in case deadlock is not broken.
For the opposition’s Democrats, Majko’s proposal for early elections if the reform doesn’t get through is viewed as a threat Prime Minister Edi Rama is directing to his main coalition partner Ilir Meta.
“It’s an internal fight among the two. We have seen Rama and Meta exchange mutual threats for quite some time now,” said Edi Paloka, head of the DP parliamentary group.
Paloka added that early elections are needed, but for completely different reasons than those provided by Majko. According to Paloka, a new government is needed because the country has entered ‘an irreversible point of crisis.’
He says the reform will be completed by the new parliament that will come out of the early elections.
“There’s another option that first elections are held and then the reform is carried out because until now we clearly see a lack of willingness by Edi Rama to finish the justice reform, which could be done by the next parliament,” Paloka declared.
After the adoption of the final opinion of the Venice Commission, the Socialist Movement for Integration also commented on the issue through its chairman Ilir Meta who said that “it is time for an objective and unbiased reading of the Venice recommendations.”
Meta responded to declarations of the Prime Minister that he has a plan B for approving the reform without the opposition by saying that his party has no other plans.
“The official stance of SMI is that our 20 votes will go in favor of the reform as proposed by the Venice Commission,” Meta added.
Meta also called on the approval of the package of constitutional amendments before the arrival in Tirana of the EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn, who is expected to visit Albania by the end of March.
The Socialist Movement for Integration has turned into a kingmaker in the Albanian political scene and its key figures have constantly repeated that they are in favor of an all-inclusive reform and that the reform won’t pass without the opposition’s consent.
For SP lawmaker Ben Blushi, who has been a strong critic of the current government, early elections mean that the Socialist Party will end up in opposition if that’s the case.
“If we go to early elections without the current coalition and that early elections are being used as a threat to break the coalition, then the outcome for the Socialist Party will most certainly be ending up in opposition,” Blushi said.
Blushi also questioned the fact a new parliament will be capable of adopting the reform.
“If we go to snap elections because we lack the votes to pass the reform now, what guarantee is out there that the new parliament won’t also lack the votes to do so?,” Blushi elaborated further.
The justice reform process in Albania started in the autumn of 2014, when the European Union conditioned the country’s integration process with the reform of its judiciary, perceived as totally corrupt. Political parties agreed that the Venice Commission would serve as a referee in the process; however the delivery of its final opinion has not helped overcome differences between the political camps and the possibility of early elections has started to surface recently, although for the time being it is confined to rhetoric.
