Rhetorical Clashes and Predictions of Unrest as Socialist Majority Prepares to Vote Ilir Meta as Albania’s New President

Tirana, Albania | Tirana Echo – Albania’s public opinion is being marked by rhetorical clashes and predictions of civil unrest as the country’s center-left majority prepares to elect LSI leader and current Speaker of Parliament Ilir Meta as the new President this evening.

Leader of new political movement and former socialist rebel MP Ben Blushi declared today his two votes against Mr. Meta for President saying his election would send the country further into crisis.

“Ilir Meta wants to become President in mid of a crisis, because of the crisis, on top of the crisis, and in order to escape the crisis. Ilir Meta is President because of fear not because of hope. He is the President of the past, not of the future. So how can I vote for him? Libra only votes for the future,” – wrote Blushi this morning on his Facebook wall.

Opposition parties are also boycotting this evening’s vote in parliament, warning of a dire scenario of bargaining between PM Rama and Speaker Meta, which does not solve Albania’s current political deadlock.

Former justice minister and LSI exponent Ylli Manjani also twitted that “elections without the DP would send the country into a dictatorship! This is more important than the name of the President of the Republic.”

Meanwhile, this morning the Socialist Party gathered its parliamentary group to formally pledge their support to Mr. Meta as the sole candidate for president on today’s fourth round of voting in parliament.

Many political commentators have hinted that despite Meta’s election as Head of State, Albania’s political crisis will deepen ahead of upcoming elections in June, which all opposition parties have sworn to boycott.

EU and US representatives are warning that the boycott of the opposition should not block elections.

“We are clear that elections would be better with all parties participating. But at the same time, elections would be legitimate even without the opposition’s participation.” – said US Ambassador to Tirana Donald Lu in an interview with the Voice of America yesterday.

In an immediate response to Donald Lu’s comments, opposition chairman Lulzim Basha said that “legitimacy does not mean justice. Segregation, Slavery and Nazism were also legitimate, but unfair.”

Local Albanian media are reporting that prime minister Edi Rama has started asking smaller parties to register as opposition parties, with the view of replacing the democrats and give legitimacy to the electoral process.

However, analysts predict that the holding of elections without the participation of the Democratic Party and its smaller opposition allies, would send Albania to civil unrest and unpredictable turmoil.