A not-so-good day for the socialists this Friday, October 31. Fatos Nano, the former historical leader of the Socialist Party, passed away in a private hospital in Tirana, where he had been in a coma for more than a month. His departure was marked by the moral collapse of a party he once founded and which today seems to be wandering between fate and the courts.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, Belinda Balluku, appeared before SPAK, where she was officially charged with violating equality in tenders.
"With full respect for the justice system, I have accepted the request of the Special Prosecution Office for a case under investigation. As a citizen of the Republic of Albania and as a public official, I see this as a process that I believe will be based on transparency, accountability and above all on the principles of unchanging justice," said Balluku.
But if the government's number two will continue to face justice while at large, Erion Veliaj, former mayor of Tirana, since 10 am today, in a marathon session, demanded that his dismissal from office be declared unconstitutional.
"Tirana is a city that beats with the pulse of our nation. The reason for my dismissal, the three-month absence from duty, is the worst insult of my life, because it came from my associates, those who know me better than anyone else, who neither informed me nor listened to me. May God forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing. I pray for them every night," declared Veliaj, as 13 criminal charges loom in the background, 9 of which are for corruption.
A former leader leaving, a deputy prime minister entering the doors of SPAK, a former mayor fighting to stay alive politically and legally. A day of ghosts for the socialists, alive and gone, who hover between the shadow of a powerful past and an uncertain future.
On this Friday, the Socialist Party suffered not only a physical loss, but also a painful reminder that power does not always protect against judgment, neither of history nor of justice.
