TIRANA, Feb. 1 – Albania’s Constitutional Court held a public session Tuesday to review the parliament’s decision to impeach President Ilir Meta, the first constitutional process of its kind in the country’s modern history.
Representatives of the president and parliament were given time to present their cases and given questions to answer in the lengthy session that went into the evening, leading to the court to schedule a second public hearing for Thursday month to hear arguments before it makes a ruling. Only audio recordings of the session were made public.
The ruling Socialist Party accuses the president of serious violations of the constitution, arguing the head of state was involved in the April 25 parliamentary elections, campaigning for the opposition and inciting “hate and violence,” according to the head of the SP parliamentary group, Taulant Balla.
As per Albania’s constitution, the president is largely an honorary figure meant to represent the unity of the people and not be an active political figure, but most presidents have been political and pushed the boundaries of what is defined by the constitution, experts note.
President Meta did not attend the court hearing, sending a legal representative instead, Bledar Dervishaj, who submitted a preliminary request that called on three members of the court to recuse themselves from the case. Dervishaj listed a series of points which, according to him, call into question the impartiality of the judges and the goal of the case.
Dervishaj pointed out, for example, that the head of the Constitutional Court, Vitore Tushaj, was holding a mandate that had expired five years ago.
The parliament’s legal representative said the president’s request was “abusive” and aimed to only further delay the process.
The court rejected the requests of the president’s representative as unfounded in the constitution and law.
“The president has completely lost faith in this body, which does not guarantee the due process of law or its impartiality,” Dervishaj said.
Last week, President Meta had also formally requested that the Special Appellate Panel initiate disciplinary proceedings against Constitutional Judge Fiona Papajorgji, raising suspicions of “violation of legal procedures” for her appointment to the impeachment case.
In a letter to the court, the president also raised his concerns that repeated questions he had sent to the court were not answered, saying there was a lack of information and transparency from the institution.
The president’s legal team is also challenging the parliamentary procedures that led to the Constitutional Court trial, saying things were done in a hurry without respecting proper procedures so the previous parliament, which the elected opposition had abandoned, could vote on the impeachment to get the needed numbers of votes.
After finishing the hearing, the Constitutional Court has up to 30 days to make a ruling, and five out of seven sitting judges are needed to approve it.
If the ruling goes against him, President Meta has said he will appeal the ruling to the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg, but legally, experts say such an appeal would be uncharted territory.
Meta’s original five-year mandate ends this summer, and his Socialist critics say his strategy is to drag the case until the time runs out on his mandate.
No president in modern Albania has ever been impeached by parliament and this is the first case of its kind to come to the Constitutional Court, which has had difficulties in recent years to reach a quorum due to the justice reform’s vetting process.
Meta is a former Socialist prime minister and one of Albania’s most seasoned politicians. Before becoming president, he was the leader of the Socialist Movement for Integration party, a harsh critic of the ruling Socialist Party, to which he says he will return as soon as his mandate ends.
