While there is a lot of talk in Albanian media about a possible reshuffle mid-mandate for the Albanian government, the motivation for any changes should be to provide a better quality of governance not simply to fulfill political schemes as the ruling coalition starts to show strain.
Prime Minister Edi Rama has repeatedly said he won’t change any of his ministers, but the talk of a cabinet reshuffle has persisted – fueled largely by the stance of the Socialist Movement for Integration of Ilir Meta, the junior coalition partner.
The government could use some “new impulses,” Meta said this week, without specifying if he meant changes to the cabinet.
A key part of the story is clear tension between the two largest forces in the ruling coalition, Mr. Rama’s Socialist Party and Mr. Meta’s SMI.
Despite dry public statements that the coalition is solid, there have been enough ambiguous statements and talks show quotes to understand that there is no love between the SP and SMI beyond not losing the perks of being in power.
Mr. Meta faces allegations, which he vehemently denies, of being involved in graft in the CEZ-DIA affair. SMI’s representative clearly wanted the government to do more to protect Mr. Meta. They might have even been worried the government would be happy to see SMI’s ever growing MP numbers decline in the next election thanks to the graft allegations.
But the fact that Mr. Rama chose to go to Mr. Meta’s office in parliament shows the SP clearly does not want to split up with the SMI and since the meetings relations appear to have warmed up.
The entrance of the Cham community’s PDIU party into the governing coalition has also shifted the balance enough to threaten Mr. Meta’s position as kingmaker, but the numbers do not add up or bode well for neither party should SMI and SP go their separate ways.
Mr. Meta is not alone in facing accusation, however. A least two Socialist ministers have been targeted hard by the opposition and other public actors who have called for their resignation. The interior minister, Saimir Tahiri, has been involved in a suspicious vehicle sale to his distant cousins who the opposition accuses of having ties to the criminal world. Health Minister Ilir Beqja has come under increasing scrutiny for suspicious decisions in the medical supply system. And a deteriorating healthcare quality in public hospitals has come under attack even in the most pro-government media outlets.
In addition, there are people within the coalition advocating for ministers to be fired so they can take their seats or get perks from the next person in line. Alas, it is politics after all.
So it is clear Mr. Rama is under pressure from many directions to recompose his cabinet, but he has said those insisting on the changes are “working against the government and its program.”
“Those who want government changes are not the ones who voted us in power,” Mr. Rama said this week.
That might be the case, but the clear tension between the two largest forces in the ruling coalition and increasing accusations on some ministers could eventually lead to a reshuffle, even-though it might not happen immediately.
If that happens, quality of governance and of the new people appointed should take priority over political scheming.
