President Meta clashed today with the municipal police, after the latter tried to evict the New Democratic Spirit party (FRD) from its offices with the motivation that the building would need to be reconstructed. “Get out or I will take you to jail with my own hands,” Meta said to the police officers during the clash, while the images show an escalation of the confrontation between the President and the FRD members or supporters from one side, and the police officers on the other.
The President went later on to accuse the police of trying to carry out a coup: “I consider it an attempt to carry out a coup, because to bring an official letter without a stamp, without protocol number to an opposition party immediately after it signed an agreement with the Democratic Party and the opposition parties to participate in the elections, was done quickly to violate psychologically and physically every opposition force,” said the President, who warned the police that they may end up having the same fate as “the police forces of Mubarak.”
According to Deputy Chairman of FRD Sali Shehu, the blockade from the police to not let any member of the party enter its offices started today in the morning. The letter from the Municipality in which FRD was asked to leave the offices, was sent only a couple of days after the FRD joined forces with DP and other oppositions parties, to form the biggest political coalition in the next elections.
After the clashes, the Mayor of Tirana Erion Veliaj spoke to some local media regarding the incident, through “denigrating tones towards the Head of State” according to Voice of America. Veliaj quoted the law on the political parties, to justify the intervention of the Municipality. In article 22 of the law, point b, it is written that “Parliamentary parties are provided with a building for their headquarters and local offices. This right also belongs to the political party, whose average vote in the last three parliamentary elections has been over 1 per cent nationwide.” What remains unclear is why in the official letter sent to FRD, the Municipality did not quote the law on the political parties as the reason behind their request to FRD to leave the headquarters but instead asked the party to move by arguing that the building needed reconstruction.
At the other hand the Deputy Chairman of FRD quoted the same law on political parties to justify his claims that FRD should not leave the offices. According to official data published by the Central Election Commission, as explained by Syri.net, in the 2013 elections, the ‘New Democratic Spirit’ secured 1.70 per cent of the votes, which would make the claims of the Mayor of Tirana baseless.
Meanwhile, Shehu declared that they have invited the prosecutors to make the necessary investigations. The headquarters of the FRD in the meantime are surrounded by supporters from the opposition, who have made it clear to the media that they will not permit the police to enter the building. The leader of the opposition, Lulzim Basha, visited also the headquarters in the afternoon, and gave his support to FRD, saying that the actions from the police represented “a violation against the opposition.”
