Local protests join previous political and ethnic opposition.
TIRANA, July 30 – There have almost daily protests held in rural municipalities across the country against the new draft law that reshapes the country’s internal map by eliminating and merging many small municipalities.
The governing Socialist-led parliamentary majority has prepared a new law that cuts the number of municipalities down to 61 from more than 350.
The government says the move is necessary along the country’s efforts of integration into the European Union and to save $80 million distributed annually from the central government budget to local officials who offer little or no service to their small municipalities.
However many communities say they want to keep their local municipalities and do not want to be merged with nearby cities. It has led to protests – often headed by the very local officials the bill aims to eliminate.
But the issue has also encountered critics inside the majority, in addition to being entirely opposed by the main opposition party and the party representing the ethnic Greek minority in the country.
The majority Socialists had planned to pass the law last week in parliament but failed to get the needed quorum, as several ruling majority MPs failed to show up for the vote.
The law needed a three-fifth majority in the 140-seat parliament which the Socialist-led ruling coalition does have should all its members of parliament vote.
The opposition Democrats are against the changes in their present form. They have also not been present at the parliamentary commission preparing the draft from the start, despite having been offered co-chairmanship and veto rights.
The Democratic Party recently said that before passing the reform the parliament should make amendments to powers granted to local authorities, entitling them to more rights than they currently have.
The draft law is also being opposed by the ethnic Greek minority political party, HRUP, which wants the southwestern town of Himara be a separate municipality and not be joined with other municipalities in the area. The HRUP is a governing ally, though they have only 1 parliamentarian.
However, the government has managed to gain the support of an opposition party representing the Cham Albanian community, JIUP, after getting the approval to arrange the territorial re-division more in their favor in the south.
That angered the HRUP that has threatened leaving the governing coalition. Their leader Vangjel Dule also made a visit to Athens, Greece last week to meet with the foreign minister there, Evangelos Venizelos, who made a phone call to his Albanian counterpart Ditmir Bushati expressing his concern.
“Venizelos stressed how critical and sensitive this issue is, and the need to move ahead to the resolution of the pending issues between the two countries, without adding new issues,” according to a statement of the Greek foreign ministry.
Tirana responded saying such a project is their domestic one and no other country may interfere.
The debate largely relates to Himara, which neighboring Greece sees as part of the ethnic Greek minority area while the Albanian government sees as an ethnic Albanian area where some Albanian choose to speak in Greek.
The issue has also attracted the attention of the international community.
On Monday, U.S. Ambassador Alexander Arvizu said that the political parties should try to reach a compromise on this important project.
Opposition Democrats only react angrily and try to support the separate protests countrywide. But they were set not to take part in any votes on the manner.
The new project will drastically cut the number of the municipalities from 378 to 61. If the law is passed on July 31, it will be Albania’s first territorial administrative reform since 1992, following the collapse of the Communist regime.
