TIRANA, July 26, 2022 – Albania’s third largest party has rebranded itself as Freedom Party and returned Ilir Meta at the helm one day after he left his office as Albania’s president, a signal the party, known for 18 years as the Socialist Movement for Integration, aims to chart a new course.
In a fiery speech, focused on nationalist themes and rhetoric typically associated with the European right-wing, Meta said the “homeland is in danger” and that an “international mafia” is acting against the interests of Albania and Kosovo with the help of Albanian Prime Minister edi Rama.
“I have seen an extraordinary danger for the sovereignty of this country, for the independence and citizenship of Kosovo, won with so much effort, blood and sacrifice. I have seen a calculated plan to eliminate political pluralism in Albania and to have a facade of democracy,” Meta told the party’s convention in Tirana.
Meta criticized the previous leadership of the opposition, which he said “bought,” for boycotting parliament and not participating in administrative elections, giving the ruling Socialist Party total control of the country at both levels of government.
The former president said Albania was in danger by “a gang which in five years carried out a coup d’état with procedures,” accusing former Democratic Party leader Lulzim Basha of having acted in sync with Prime Minister Rama.
Meta said in television interviews later in the day that he sees the current leader of the DP, Sali Berisha, as a political ally in the battle he has undertaken.
Meta said the party, which lost most of its seats in parliament in the last election, would move to create referendum mechanisms to curtail the powers of what he said were “usurpers of power and the greedy oligarchs” a move that he added would “guarantee that sovereignty does not belong to the people only on paper.”
As president of Albania, Meta was not allowed to be active in politics, so as soon as he officially handed the role he returned to his old party to get his membership card.
The party’s convention approved changes to the statute, including the rebrand, departing from the leftist label. It also decided all leadership structures would be remade following the work of a committee headed by Meta. The previous party leader, Monika Kryemadhi — Meta’s wife — resigned.
Meta just finished a full five-year presidential mandate, in which he was a strong voice of criticism of the Rama government. The ruling majority tried unsuccessfully to remove him from office. Meta had promised he would immediately return to active party politics, something he could not do while holding the office of the president.
