By Desada Metaj
It is learned that a meeting of judges was held at the Constitutional Court, where the main and priority issue on the agenda was Erion Veliaj's request for the suspension of the decree of the President of the Republic, which set November 9 as the date for the local by-elections.
One of the members of the Court, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the issue is being considered as a priority and that there were debates at the meeting. “More than names, the issue is related to the implementation of the Constitution,” the source said. At this stage, a decision has not yet been reached, but the next meeting is expected to take place shortly.
Beyond the journalistic interest in the progress of this case — which, not because of its nature, but because of the gravity of the circumstances that have occurred these days — what the Constitutional Court will decide goes beyond the fate of a mayor. As events have unfolded, this issue essentially involves the existence of the Albanian state as a constitutional order.
The tragic event of the murder of the Appeals Judge is a painful sign, after which no more proof is needed: the integrity of the state itself has been seriously questioned. The collective depression that has gripped society, or the emotional exclamations of a part of the public that has sided with the murderer on social networks, are a dire alarm signal for our society.
This climate was preceded by the brutal moves of the Prime Minister, who, in haste and in contradiction to constitutional and legal tradition, dismissed “with the hands of the Municipal Council” the mayor of Tirana, denying him the most elementary rights to be heard. And, as if this were not enough, in flagrant contradiction to previous cases when representatives of local government have been dismissed, the matter should have been suspended until the Constitutional Court had expressed its opinion. Only then should the other steps be continued.
Instead, the President of the Republic — who was supposed to be the first bulwark against the arrogance of power and the catalyst for social peace — chose to jump into the same political current, hastily decreeing the election date, as the Prime Minister requested, sacrificing the Constitution without the slightest twinge of conscience.
These are elections for which no one has any doubts that the outcome is predetermined.
With an opposition that has surrendered and is lost in petty flirtations with the government, only for the survival of their respective "sh.pk", Albanians are more lonely than ever. Political orphans, surrounded by a general hypocrisy that aims to keep them in social hibernation.
So today, as never before in these 30 years, there is a screaming need for someone to stand up for the constitutionality of the country. And this task has fallen to the Constitutional Court.
It has been called today not to judge the fate of a dismissed mayor, but one politically executed by his own people. Not to simply defend the autonomy of local government, as a sign of liberal democracy. Not to "save the good soldier Bajram", but to defend its very existence as an institution.
The Constitutional Court has been called upon to show whether it still exists as a mechanism to limit the unlimited power of the Prime Minister, the subservience of the President, the hypocrisy of the opposition, and the madness of a part of the public. And these are the reasons why this issue assumes cardinal importance.
The hypocrisy of politics, after the event of the execution of the state two days ago, which breaks away for only a few minutes from the squabble with power to appear moved and reflective, will last only three days. The execution of the Constitution is done once and for all, without appeal. The Constitutional Court has the opportunity today to disallow it.
The past of this court has not been encouraging: the mess with the mandate issues, the decisions related to SPAK's fight with corrupt criminal groups, seem like timid stutters. Many other decisions that even tangentially affect the government are not only timid and unclear, but sometimes even meaningless. These have also sunk the Court itself into the institutional quagmire into which the government has plunged the state.
However, time and chance brought him perhaps for the last time the opportunity to defend the constitutional system of the Albanians. It is now known that judges are under pressure, both from the government and the opposition, from the public and the media, but they themselves have chosen to be there. Now it is up to them to face the bullet of social and political stupidity that has gripped the country.
If this issue is covered in informational darkness, this is a bad omen. It is up to them to express themselves quickly and clearly, without hiding behind procedural labyrinths and cowardly decisions.
Their very existence is on the test.
They have the chance of a lifetime to recover their eroded authority — and if they don't, then it's time to leave. With historical shame.
