Tentative immunity deal reached
TIRANA, July 25 – The governing Democratic Party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha and the main opposition Socialist Party of Edi Rama appear to have reached an agreement on the draft law on lifting the immunities of the top officials, following a Tuesday meeting of representatives from the two parties.
However, opposition Socialists noted they will not vote on such agreement on Aug. 6, as proposed by the Democrats, but only as a total package of the legal reforms needed and to be made through the amendments of the Constitution later in September.
But after that the opposition Socialists said they will not vote in Aug. 6 in the parliament but only as a total package of the legal reforms needed and to be made through the amendments of the Constitution later in September.
There has been strong international pressure _ the United States, the European Union and also the OSCE _ that the country should pass such a law in order to take concrete steps toward fighting corruption, that remains its Achilles’ heel along the country’s progress toward membership into the bloc. The issue also serves as an issue of daily contest between the leaders of the two political parties.
The governing Democrats have sent to the parliament a draft law based on the suggestions, recommendations made from the Council of Europe experts.
Responding to that the opposition Socialists sent a package of laws, not only that of the immunities, that need to be passed.
Their leader Edi Rama says that the Socialists will not make partial repairs of the Constitution in August and then turn back to it again.
While Prime Minister Sali Berisha says that the opposition is trying to block the draft law in order not to let the country get the EU’s candidate status in the fall, trying to blame the government on that. He accuses Rama of trying to support a “club of billionaires” in his party. Both sides say they are in favor of lifting the immunity of the cabinet ministers, lawmakers and also limit that of the judges and prosecutors.
But they do not agree on the steps needed to carry them out.
And that turns both sides at the line of accusations against each other.
The international community has said it clearly that Albanian top officials should be stripped of their immunity. And they have also supported the idea of voting the draft law in Aug. 6, likely as a test for Rama and his party.
U.S. Ambassador Alexander A. Arvizu held again a meeting with Rama this week, the same that EU’s Ambassador Ettore Sequi has also done.
“The lifting of immunities is an important step towards fighting corruption, towards ensuring more accountability on the part of public officials,” said Arvizu, adding that “the lifting of immunities is but one step of several that need to be taken to effectively combat corruption and that some of these steps include measures that would conclude excessive political interference in the functioning of the judiciary, the work of the prosecutor’s office, etc.”
He added that the timing of steps to address these measures is something that the Albanian political system needs to decide, “but, from our perspective, it is important that this be done.”
The international community supports the draft law which has its foundation based on the recommendations made last year by EURALIUS and PACA, two international institutions assisting Albania.
Last weekend the parliament held open hearings with expert testimony with different views about possible steps that could be taken to improve the drafts.
On Tuesday the representatives of the two parties reconciled the different points of view but the timing of the vote.
The opposition Socialists have said they may not take part in the Aug. 6 vote on lifting of immunities if the other requests are not met and they have recommended for the vote to be postponed to September.
Constitutional amendments ask for at least a three-fifth, or 84 votes inthe 140-seat parliament to be passed and they cannot be secured without the opposition.
Meanwhile Albania is expecting a positive answer from Brussels on its request for the candidate status and that may be done in October when they produce the annual progress report.
The Socialists also mentioned the fact that the legal package should also include the election of the judges for the Constitutional and the Supreme Courts and for that they have yet to reach a compromise with the governingDemocrats.
Such moves are the main focus of the daily politics in the country, which otherwise has also some other hidden steps.
The local media reported that Berisha and his Democrats were trying to attract in their coalition Nard Ndoka of the Christian Democrats, who is with the opposition coalition now. It was learnt that Ndoka was offered the post of the deputy interior minister which was not accepted. Ndoka likely asked for the post of one of the 12 prefects in the country.
It doesn’t matter what the details were. But the move shows that Berisha and his party have already started to create the coalition for next year’s parliamentary elections.
Berisha pledged openly last week that his party has shown to be faithful to such partnerships, unlike the opposition Socialists.
In the other side, smaller coalition parties with the Socialists have hinted they may run alone, in a separate grouping as they felt abandoned by the Socialists that agreed for the electoral law changes, not including their request for changing the law system from a regional into a national proportional one.
Rama also called on all the supporters of different political groupings to join them in the campaign against the government coalition.
It seems that corruption will again be the main topic in the electoral campaign. While the opposition Socialists every week comes out any, what they call, government scandal, Berisha repeats that Rama does not want the lifting of the immunities to protect his club of billionaires.
