TIRANA, June 4 – The leader of the Democratic Party (DP), Sali Berisha expressed himself against President Ilir Meta for his decree on the dismissal of Bajram Begaj as Chief of General Staff of the army, paving the way for his candidacy for President.
President Meta decreed on Saturday the dismissal of Begaj from his military post from Turkey, where he was on an official visit, but such a thing is not allowed, according to Berisha.
DP head said that the President loses the power of decrees outside the territory of his country. “The president loses the power of decrees outside the territory of his country. There is no decree outside the territory. When you are abroad, the Head of State is the Speaker of Parliament. This is the rule of Europe. We did not imagine that there could be such a constitutional violation. We are in the conditions of a flagrant violation of the Constitution,” said Berisha.
Berisha made that statement after a debate with the Speaker, Lindita Nikolla in the parliamentary hall where the voting procedures for the election of the new president had begun.
“I asked to make this statement in the Parliament but Mrs. Linda, who has the Parliament as her key, did not give me the floor. There is no parliamentary hall in the world, including the UN, that when someone asks to speak on procedural matters the floor is not given. This happens only in the Albanian Parliament which Mrs. Lindita uses as her own shop,” said Berisha.
He further said that the vote is in flagrant violation of the Constitution.
“Today it is being committed an ugly violation of the constitution, an unconstitutional act in the parliament of Albania because in flagrant violation of the constitution it is being voted for President of Republic the man who passes from the chair of Chief of Staff to the chair of Head of State openly violating Article 167 of the constitution. According to this article, the active military cannot be appointed nor elected to bodies or powers other than the duties of the army,” said Berisha.
“The claim that he resigned has zero value because for the military, not the resignation, but the approval and removal from duty is the way that frees him from duty,” said Berisha. /Argumentum.al
