TIRANA, April 2 – Acting Minister of Interior Gent Cakaj announced on Monday Honorary Consuls will be required to “hand in their diplomatic car plates,” attracting criticism from political actors and experts alike.
Former Finance Minister and Austrian Honorary Consul for the South of Albania Arben Malaj reacted to Cakaj’s public announcement by saying the latter has lost focus of what the national priorities are and that these sort of news only serve to fill his media agenda.
Further on, Malaj said he never received diplomatic plates in the first place.
“I had hoped that if there was really a problem with the plates, the MFA’s General Secretariat would conduct a meeting with the chairman of the Association of Honorary Consuls and clarify the concrete problem and cooperate to resolve it as soon as possible. The Deputy Prime Minister’s focus on staff, diplomatic plates or passports harms the profile of a statesman, undermines the credibility of the MFA, which seems to have lost focus on national priorities and fills the media agenda with such news,” Malaj wrote.
Further on, Malaj added that appointment as a Honorary Consul is a long and bureaucratic process that requires even the approval of both countries’ secret services and that he’d hoped Cakaj would have used this opportunity to promote this diplomatic achievement and increase cultural, economic and scientific activities.
Former Foreign Minister and member of the Democratic Party Tritan Shehu also commented Cakaj’s personal announcement of the driving plate withdrawal.
“As If this is our diplomacy’s greatest problem, the cause of losing our primary role in the region, of our changed strategic policies, the weakening of our cooperation with our main partners, or the blocking of our integration process for several years,” Shehu commented through his Facebook profile.
“In fact it is an issue that can be easily dealt with by the Road Police. Just like issues of the Ministry of Interior, drugs, trafficking, criminality, “money laundering” etc. belong to the Ministry of Interior,” Shehu clarified.
Last Tuesday, Cakaj again took the floor to announce that he will dismiss a number of the ministry’s diplomatic service personnel over failing to meet the profession’s “minimal legal conditions.”
Following his announcement, which was considered by many political experts a “wipeout” of former Foreign Minister’s Ditmir Bushati personnel, Cakaj posted a Twitter reaction objecting the criticism against him.
“The reform of the Albanian diplomacy’s administration is not a “broom,” but an investment in those human resources that deserve to put the excellence of their knowledge and formation in the service of a patriotic and European diplomatic representation,” Cakaj wrote in his twitter account.
