Albanian Democracy is an Empty Facade
Ina Metalia, in Albania’s capital city Tirana, 2020
February 2019 saw the opposition party of the Albanian Government, the Democratic Party (DP), burn their Assembly mandates in protest over the disputed 2017 election. Members of parliament that were not allied with the majority Rama administration (or members of the Socialist Party of Albania) ‘resigned’ following accusations that the Rama gov had participated in voter fraud. In 2020, they continue to abstain from the legislative process – leaving the Rama administration unchecked, and Albania a ‘functioning democracy’ in name only.
THP spoke to Ina Metalia, about whether she thought their actions were justified.
[Did the opposition MPs give up their mandates voluntarily?]
They actually did that out of choice to protest the current government. A lot of their [the current gov]’s deputies were found to have committed crimes such as rape, trafficking drugs and political corruption. A criminalised parliament means that there is no freedom. There is no democracy. So I would say that the opposition left their mandates, [in an attempt to] get the public to come and just oppose the government. It started like a series of protests, but ultimately it didn't finish to anything productive. That was last year, but they didn't go back.
So they have just been combating the Prime Minster Edi Rama on a different plain. They've being protesting, and have been bringing to the eye of the public problems and reporting on the corruption.
People have different opinions about what the opposition did, thinking that that didn't bring anything good.
[It seems quite a gamble to give up your sort of parliamentary seats with the hope of raising public consciousness when there's still two and a half years of a term to go]
I do not have an exact answer, because I completely understand why they started it as a move, because if they are going to be in the same Parliament's in the same place with those criminals, in a way, they are legitimising their power and are saying that they have accepted that ‘this is right, and that we are going to rule with you’. So I understand why they could not bring themselves to stay’’
[Now that the public is aware of the crimes that have been committed, why hasn't there been more of a challenged to [Rama’s] authority?]
That's a bit difficult to answer straightaway. There are different underlying reasons. The first reason is that people simply do not have the time. One of the things that I think this government has done that is very damaging to our country is they’ve made our country poorer than it used to be. A lot of our youngsters have been going abroad. They have left our country. So they don’t feed back into pensions and support for the older generations.
If your country's poor, they do not have time to think about politics. It's as simple as that.
You need to have time and the luxury to sit down and think, 'Okay, this political party is doing this and that'. So I think that maybe half of the people either are not very involved in the politics, or they just simply think that [political parties] are all the same, no matter which rules.
I think in a way they have given up. They have lost hope. They do not trust politics anymore. And they don’t believe that any incoming party will be different from the outgoing
Another reason is fear. A lot of people are hired in the government, through municipalities. We had elections last year about our municipalities in the whole country, and the main party that is now in position were the only ones competing. So of course, they won. We don't only have the government, we also have the municipality authority. The people that oppress you are at local level. You can’t escape them, so it is hard to resist them’’
[How that this impacted Albania overall on the world stage?]
Currently, we're on our process to be part of the EU. A few years ago we were very close to joining. We only had like 3 conditions that we had to keep fulfil, or improve, until they would open the negotiations for us. Opening the negotiations is a big step forward. Economic aid, jobs, political accountability, all come with EU membership.
So this year, with our government claiming that they have ‘improved our country’s laws and our economy’, we received 15 points that we need to improve. That’s five times the amount we received back then.
So that's a huge setback for us. It nearly drove me insane. We were so close to becoming part of the European Union, only to be denied through our own government’s corruption and incompetence. At first, they denied it. And then the next day the officials of the EU came out, and they made it public. So it's been it's been crazy. The government were making like public speeches and then the next day it has come out that they were outright lying. And they don't seem to care. Like it's crazy.
[What were the points you had to improve on?]
Of course, the corruption, the improvement of our economy, about the crime, decriminalising the Parliament and the power. It's quite a lot of points that we have got to fulfil all over again. It's just like we’re going back in time. It’s a bit hit.’’