President tells parliament to review three laws, signals veto for administrative reform, as prime minister promises to bypass president’s limited veto powers.
TIRANA, Aug. 21 – The hot and quiet summer months might be coming to an end, but the heat will linger in Albania’s political scene, as September promises to start with a clash between the ruling Socialist-led coalition and the country’s president, a former high official of the main opposition Democratic Party.
President Bujar Nishani has refused to sign several key laws approved in parliament, using his limited veto powers to tell parliament to review the laws approved by the Socialist-led ruling coalition in the last session on July 31.
The laws in question deal with the State Police, High Council of Justice and the Administrative Court. The president has also indicated will also veto the much-debated administrative reform, which reshapes local government borders.
Once the president’s veto became public, Prime Minister Edi Rama was quick to respond via his social media channels, focusing on the police law in particular.
“The president has vetoed the law on police, listing the pseudo-arguments of the Democratic Party for a law that has been written with the help of international partners. Regretful.” Rama wrote. “But it’s useless. The reforms will not stop. Parliament will pass the law on police again without any changes and the pseudo-arguments of the Democrats are worthless.”
Presidential vetoes in Albania are largely symbolic, as head of state has the constitutional power to veto laws and send them back to parliament for review, however he can do so only once and the parliament can simply re-approve the laws without any changes.
Relations between the government and the president has always been tensed and accompanied with public exchanges with opposing views.
The new law of the State Police has been opposed by President Nishani because of changes in the structure of the State Police and the Guard of the Republic – a paramilitary force that protects political leaders – which will now be known by another name under the law. The president was also concerned by the creation of national Bureau of Investigation, a structure trumpeted by the government as a mechanism that will significantly strengthen the fight against corruption, but which, according to President Nishani, creates a parallel body to do the work currently done by prosecutors and judicial police.
Another law is that was vetoed deals with the High Council of Justice, which was followed by numerous debates and strong opposition and by the HCJ, which Nishani himself leads. But the president has rejected only one aspect of it, that relating to limiting the selection of candidates for vice president, among only the three council members nominated by parliament.
The president had earlier vetoed another law relating the School of Magistrates.
Nishani has also expressed his disapproval, passing without signing, at least five laws, since the beginning of this year. If the president does not issue a veto within a certain time-frame, the law is automatically decreed under Albanian legislation.
Administrative reform law faces likely veto, court challenges
But perhaps the most contentious issue will be that of the territorial and administrative reform, which has been approved by parliament but which faces opposition from different groupings. Nishani held a consultative meeting with representatives of Albania’s Association of Municipalities regarding the new administrative-territorial reform.
Nishani said in a statement the meeting came in in response to many requests and complaints received from interest groups, associations and representatives of local government and the association of municipalities regarding territorial reform.
The president says he fully supports the government’s initiative to undertake an administrative-territorial reform, considering it as an important issue, but added that it should be done in full accordance with national interests, those of citizens and should be a process based on the constitution and the laws of the country.
Several groups that oppose the reform, including organizations that represent ethnic minorities in Albania, have vowed to take it to the country’s constitutional court to have it voided, citing concerns.
There have also protests in rural municipalities across the country against the new law that reshapes the country’s internal map by eliminating and merging many small municipalities, cutting 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 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.
Parliament likely to discuss central bank theft
Another major political debate to hit parliament as soon as it comes back from summer vacation will likely be that relating to the Bank of Albania, which is reeling from an internal theft of $7 million over the past four years. Prosecutors have arrested ten people in the case. So far only one employee has confessed to stealing stacks of cash in Albanian currency to feed his gambling addiction.
Erion Brace, a Socialist MP who heads the parliament’s Finance Committee, has signaled he will propose legislative changes that can lead to the replacement of the governor and the supervisory council. Brace had said Governor Adrian Fullani has direct moral responsibility for the criminal actions that took place under his watch.
“The law clearly states that the council may sack the governor and council members when their actions seriously jeopardize the interests of the bank,” Brace said. “It has been clearly proven that the governor, both as a member and chairman of the Supervisory Council, has seriously jeopardized the interests of the bank.”
While losing support on the left, the main opposition center-right Democratic Party has said it does not support firing Fullani, calling it “political interference” in the work of an independent institution. Edi Paloka, who heads the Democrats parliamentary group, said the opposition is not in favor of a proposed parliamentary investigative committee that could be formed in September to investigate the central bank theft.
“We do not support any legal initiative from the ruling majority on this,” Paloka said.
