TIRANA, Feb. 12 – President Bujar Nishani says he won’t approve the government-proposed appointment of Visar Zhiti as Albania’s new ambassador to the Vatican, following a row involving Albania’s Catholic Church, the candidate and members of parliament.
Zhiti is a well-known poet and dissident jailed by the communist regime and served briefly as a minister of culture in the previous Democratic Party government.
President Nishani said that the government had not negotiated with him beforehand and said Zhiti’s reaction was wrong when he faced opposition to the nomination by a key official of the Albanian Catholic Church.
The statement of a senior Catholic priest in the country against the nomination sparked a harsh public debate. Father George Frendo, secretary general of the Catholic Church in Albania, said that it would be better if Tirana nominated an ambassador that comes from the country’s Catholic community, to which Zhiti does not belong.
Many Albanians, including lawmakers, were unhappy with what they saw as interference by the church in state affairs, and said Albania is a secular state the religious background is irrelevant.
Zhiti said the request was like an “inquisition” against him, a response Nishani sees as unforgivable.
Frendo responded said he did not intend to offend anyone and had only expressed what he thought was best. He also apologized if anyone, including Zhiti was offended.
On Monday, Zhiti was also present at the parliamentary foreign commission where he said why he had accepted the post.
Zhiti said that Pope Francis had chosen to visit Albania last year as the first country in Europe considering it as the emblem of religious harmony.
“We must give back to the Vatican the spiritual support given to Albania. We have values and we should show these because it is a moral state. Albania has a very excellent background for Europe. And Europe is late to accept Albania, not vice versa, because we have given Scanderbeg to Europe, also called the protector of mankind,” said Zhiti.
Zhiti is still recovering from a personal tragedy, as his only son recently died in a traffic accident.
“In a difficult moment I accepted this spiritual task, because the world needs the spirit, not just the matter,” he told MPs Monday.
