Editorial: Legislating away democracy on made up allegations sets a terrible precedent
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- Ilir Meta's ability to galvanize an opposition movement has the ruling Socialists moving chess pieces to deny voters a say.
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TIRANA TIMES EDITORIAL
Almost the day after he handed over the office of the head of state, Ilir Meta, one of Albania’s top political leaders for nearly 30 years, was faced with “a scoop” by government-friendly media outlets claiming that he had been a cooperator of the communist secret police, Sigurimi.
The speaker of parliament said publicly that what she had seen in the media was “greatly shocking.” She was referring to a file where initials I.M. were mentioned which were tied to Ilir Meta, who had just finished his term as President of the Republic of Albania.
However, experts in this area have alluded to a clear case of manipulation of a Sigurimi file. Speaking to local media, several said it was a badly stitched production. The facts don’t match. The file alludes that Meta spied on a fellow student when the two of them were living in a dorm at the University in Tirana. Meta never lived in the dorms. There are other inconsistencies too, the experts were picking at — but nothing changes the fact this is not about the file — but the political motivation of those who came up with it.
Meta’s outing as “a spy” seems to be, firstly, a pure political revenge of the ruling Socialists and, secondly, a way to politically neutralize a strong opponent like Meta, who kept the promise that he would go into active politics the day after he handed over the presidency at the helm of an opposition movement against a “corrupt regime,” as Meta calls the Socialist Party government of Edi Rama who has now been in power for almost a decade.
Meta is a perennial politician and has held every position the country has in his career of 30 years. He was a member of parliament in the first post-communist legislature and served as an MP in all following legislatures but the last. He has served as minister, in several positions, Prime Minister and Speaker of the Parliament before being elected President in 2017. There isn’t another politician in Albania, perhaps, who has gone into so many filters when it comes to lustration and security laws than Meta.
In fact, the Socialist Party that came to power with the help of the party Meta led in 2013, after eight years in the opposition. The Socialists then unreservedly supported the election of Meta as head of state in 2017.
But things took a turn when as head of state Meta clashed with Rama, over democratic standards, governance, elections and a myriad of other political moves that have made Rama today the strongest and longest continuous serving prime minister in post-communist Albania.
Thus, back to today, Meta appears to have fallen victim to the instrumentalization of the communist past to fight political rivals. It’s not the first time this has happened. But not even proven cooperators of Sigurimi or former high officials of the regime have been removed from key positions. They have continued to be part of politics. That’s despite the fact that all the political initiatives and post-communist Albania’s approach to the past, including lustration laws, have not aimed to distance from the past, but have served to fight political opponents.
That tradition appears to continue as the ruling Socialists seem to be working on a special law, aimed specifically at removing Meta from politics and thus his opposition to the ruling party in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Meta has been called “a political animal” by analysts and his ability to still get a lot of support and efforts to galvanize a massive opposition movement has clearly worried the Socialists, who in typical fashion, are moving the chess pieces to get as much of an upper hand as they can before they face voters.
Meta’s hardcore opposition is made even more worrisome to the ruling party considering that he has also promised to support the main opposition Democratic Party, which is now back in the hands of another perennial leader, Sali Berisha. The duo is mobilizing the opposition in a way many thought was no longer possible.
Based on statements this week by its leader in parliament, Taulant Balla, the ruling Socialist Party will try to ban Meta from parliament through legislative measures based on the made up Sigurimi file rather than through the ballot box. Whatever the reasoning, denying voters a say is ultimately undemocratic.
