Tirana, Albania | Tirana Echo – The Albanian Parliament has voted today with 87 out of 89 votes in favor of current Speaker of Parliament Ilir Meta to be the small Balkan country’s new President of Republic in what is seen as a new milestone turn in Albania’s political crisis. Opposition democrats boycotted the vote.
Elected with only the votes of the governing center-left majority, Ilir Meta, 48, will become the 7th President of Albania, and the first politician to have held all top three political positions in Albania, Prime Minister, Speaker of Parliament and now President of the Republic.
Speaking in front of the MPs who voted in the extraordinary plenary in Parliament, Meta said a politician is always in between a balance of power and democracy, and that in this relationship he prefers the latter.
“This is why today I chose democracy. I will respect the law and the Constitution. I would ask all of us to try together to do our best so that the country goes to the best and most democratic elections our people deserve,” – said a visibly somber Meta, in reflection to the country’s current political deadlock where opposition parties are boycotting parliament and upcoming June elections.
Meta is largely seen as the ‘kingmaking’ consensual candidate of Albania’s politics as his party has been able to forge governing coalitions with both right wing democrats and left leaning socialists.
Several regional leaders have already congratulated him while the US Embassy immediately put a statement on its website congratulating “Speaker Ilir Meta on his election as the next President of Albania. We look forward to working with Albania’s leaders to address the country’s challenges and create opportunities for the Albanian people.”
Concerns remain over the future of his party, which has recently seen an electoral boom and boost in public opinion. Mr. Meta said he will hand over his LSI party chairmanship to Mr. Petrit Vasili, the current Vice Chairman of LSI and Justice Minister who will continue to lead the party as a ‘commanded’ chair.
Local media alleged the LSI will be run by Meta’s wife Monika Kryemadhi who is currently an MP and will lead the party electoral list in the district of Elbasan. However, no official statement has yet been issued by the LSI headquarters tonight.
The only two votes against his candidacy were from socialist rebels Ben Blushi and Mimoza Hafizi who had already declared their new Party’s vote against.
“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 earlier this morning on his Facebook wall.
Meta has been engaged in politics since 1990 as an active participant in the students’ movement against communism that brought political pluralism in Albania, and has since been elected Member of Parliament in all legislatures and has been an active member of several Parliamentary Commissions.
Born in 1969 in Skrapar, a southern mountainous region of Albania, Meta studied Political Economy at the Faculty of Economics, University of Tirana in 1992.
After a row with former Socialist leader Fatos Nano, Meta resigned from his premiership and consequently was dismissed from the party, prompting him to form the Socialist Movement for Integration of Albania (LSI) in September 2004, which after several years of bitter battles with Edi Rama’s socialists, joined them in 2013 in what is now the governing social-democratic coalition of Albania.
Meta has served in numerous other capacities as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs as well as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Trade and Energy of the Republic of Albania. He is married to Monika Kryemadhi and together they have two daughters and a son.
Copyright 2017 TiranaEcho.com – All Rights Reserved