TIRANA, Sept. 14 – In an interview with Tirana Times, Ilir Meta, Albania’s former president and the current head of the Freedom Party (FP) speaks about FP’s political stances as well as its plans for the future.
Q: Mr. Meta, you kept the promise that you would go into active politics the day after handing over the country’s presidency. You are now at the helm of an opposition movement against, as you put it, the “corrupt regime” of the Socialist government of Edi Rama. What are your aims moving forward?
It is true! I always keep my promises.
Initially, I had other plans for my career after the tenure as President of the Republic. The dramatic developments in my country, certainly, obliged me to change the course of my career.
The country is in need of a genuine, determined, courageous and uncompromised opposition to face the worst governance that Albania has experienced in its recent history. The current government has brought detrimental consequences to the country as a result of the state capture, that it will need a lot of time to recover from. The depopulation, especially among the youth, with the highest numbers in the region, that is taking place every single day, is a product of the policies that the Rama autocratic government has carried out.
Rama has gone as far as to destroy the foundations of the democratic system itself, by criminalizing it: the free and fair elections are ruined by voter intimidation, vote-buying and through the ruling party’s 9,000 public sector employees engaged in monitoring individual voters through the Patronage system; the national economy is in the hands of few clients of Rama, the public debt has sky-rocketed, and almost nothing has been done to protect average citizens from the raising prices and a much higher cost of living.
The average citizen has no security for their life, be it physical, health, educational, property or judicial. That is why people are leaving the country every day. My aim is to contribute in restoring democracy in the country, to bring the sovereignty of political choice to the citizens. That is why I am back in active politics.
Q: Mr. Meta, why did the party rebrand from the Socialist Movement for Integration to the Freedom Party. The name change signals a pivot to the right for this historically leftist movement, which was formed as a splinter group of the Socialist Party. Where will FP be in the political spectrum?
In a normal democratic system, the positioning of a party is important for the ideological basis of its policies. But, Albania today does not have a normal political system. The Socialist party, despite its name, has conducted extreme right-wing policies: supporting the rich, privatizing public services, especially health and education, failing to create equal opportunities for education or for business, widening the gap and polarization between the handful of super rich linked with Rama and the rest of the people. Therefore, today the challenge is to set right and bring back to normality the foundations of the democratic system: free and fair elections, free market economy, and equal individual rights, not the ideological nuances of policies.
FP is positioned to do exactly this: make Albanians decide with their free will about who is going to govern them and with what policies. That is why the referendum is the instrument that FP will use to empower the common citizen, to make the right policy choices and to bring accountability to the politics.
Q: Some have argued that representative democracy in Albania was harmed beyond repair in 2008 when an agreement between the two largest parties at the time changed the constitution overnight to remove a large say from voters on who they wanted in parliament. You were the sole voice fighting against that move. Will you try to remedy the situation in the next parliament?
It is true that the Constitutional changes of 2008 have destroyed not only representative democracy, but also the system of check and balance. Today, Albania is a “prime-ministerial republic”, where the executive branch has usurped the functions and powers of the parliament, independent institutions, and often, the functions of Judiciary, enabled by the intentional mishandling of the judicial reform.
In the circumstances of a divided and weak opposition, the Prime Minister managed to create an autocratic republic, where there was no power or institution to contain him.
Containing him to behave within the powers the Constitution gives to the Prime Minister, was my most important challenge of my tenure as President.
Certainly, establishing a normal democratic mechanism of check and balance is going to be an important objective of the FP.
Q: Government-friendly media outlets claims that you had been a cooperator of the communist secret police, Sigurimi, as student, and now the Socialists are proposing a special law to deny you an active role in politics, despite the experts casting doubt on the veracity of file and you having passed every lustration filter for 30 years. What will your response be?
Regretfully, the PM Rama and his lackeys resort to the same dirty tricks that the same Sigurimi used to attack and destroy any dissidence against the previous regime. I have already started legal proceedings against all those in charge who have fabricated such an irrelevant story. This story betrays the immense fears that Rama and his regime have, and their desperation and hopelessness in front of the popular discontent and the earth trembling under their feet.
It’s a pity the Authority of Files engaged in such a scandalous adventure under Edi Rama’s orders. For an anonymous email (illegal source of information), AIDSSH gathered within 24 hours, and violated the law seven times by taking illegal decisions.
Meanwhile, since Aug. 3, when the Sigurimi victim, whom after being acquainted with his manipulated and falsified file, has presented to the authority an official request for correction, based on the truths affirmed with his own testimony on his handwritten statement of March 9, 1990, where he clearly states whom his I.M. classroom and dormitory friend was, that collaborated and spied on him on behalf of the State Sigurimi.
This AIDSSH dirty game happened right after the changes in the institution’s board composition, substituting individuals with integrity with puppets of the Rama-Basha regime.
Edi Rama’s sole objective is to either buy his opponents, or use any other means of power to eliminate them, as he has shown during his time in office, to be an enemy of the free media, economic freedom, and political pluralism which derives from free and fair elections.
Q: You’ve indicated that FP will work together with the Democratic Party to oppose the government and ruling SP. What form will that cooperation take in light of the Socialist Party having changed the laws to make it hard for the opposition to form coalitions. Also, there are rumors in Tirana that you will try to run for mayor of the city as the united opposition representative in the next elections. Are you considering a run?
There is already cooperation and coordination among all the opposition parties and factors, which will be strengthened further in the days to come.
It is extremely important that the FP and DP share the same assessment of the critical situation the country is in, and the same judgement of the cause of such a situation, identifying PM Rama as the sole cause.
The opposition is fully aware of the massive discontent among the people towards Rama and his government, a discontent which goes beyond the traditional voters of FP and DP.
Our challenge is to convert this discontent into a force for change, and bring Albania back on the normal democratic track of domestic reforms and the requirement of the EU integration process.
Coming to your question about running in Tirana, at this point in time, Tirana municipality represents one of the worst examples of corruption, money-laundering, mishandling of public funds, abuse with the territory adjustment and public space, all wrapped in a loathsome propaganda and deceit.
Therefore, the “battle” to free Tirana from this mass, is a first step to freeing all the country from the clique that has usurped it. I am sure the opposition will create the synergy to make this change happen.
I’m convinced the opposition is able to provide to the public many credible candidates, with integrity and vision. Everyone of them will have mine, and the Freedom Party’s full support./Tiranatimes/
