By Andi Bushati
What is being sold as a protracted institutional crisis between a Constitutional Court ordering parliament to vote to bring up the issue of Olta Xhačka’s immunity and the parliamentary majority claiming that deputies elected by the sovereign cannot be ordered nobody knows how to vote, it’s actually a farce to throw ashes in the eyes of the public. It will simply save the dirty page in the services to the government of the most important body to come out of the reform in justice.
The problem is not at all the point being discussed today; so, whether or not the constitutional right to order the assembly to send for review the mandate of the former minister who is claimed to have benefited from the title of strategic investor from the government she was part of.
Because, from the right that she is persistently seeking today, through a decision taken at the beginning of this July, that is to examine the Xhaçka case in substance, the constitutionalist gave up of her own free will to serve the Rama government. Everything was decided in February 2023, when Olta was still foreign minister.
At that time, not even two years had passed since the last elections, and the termination of a mandate for non-compliance had a certain weight in the political game. But then the Constitutionalist, as the cream of the new justice, decided to play the sorrollatje card. She ignored the handling of the request of 1/5 of the deputies (28 supporters of Berisha) who asked her to express whether or not Xhaçka was entitled to the mandate.
They, also helped by a request from the opposition group Alibeaj-Basha, which at that time was much larger in numbers, decided to deal with the form and not the substance, i.e. whether or not the assembly should be forced to pass on the opposition’s request for the removal of a immunity. They blatantly ignored the mandatory requirement of 1/5 of the deputies and this was not an accidental oversight.
At that time, Olta still sat next to the prime minister in cabinet meetings, then she had a full 29 months as a deputy. And the best help they did to her constitutional judge was to play the devil, to avoid examining her case in essence.
They were afraid because their “old justice” predecessors had left them the hot potato of the precedent of removing the immunities of Ilir Beqe and Koço Kokëdhima, for similar issues. So, instead of saving her directly, they “forgave” her by donating time to the former minister.
Today, this issue has lost its importance and the constitutional danger will never consider it again. But even if he does, the decision he will take will be ridiculous, since when it is announced, Olta Xhaçka will be included in the new party list for the next parliament.
This is where the fable of Olta Xhaçka’s mandate ends, together with the barren controversy, if the assembly will be forced to open its file for consideration.
But here begins a much sharper issue: that of the annihilation of the Constitutional Court, which has not lost any opportunity to serve Edi Rama. This institution, which has just emerged from the reform, is the one that has legitimized monist elections in this country with a single party and without the decree of the head of state.
This is the court that has refused to say whether the demolition by Veliaj of the National Theater building was legal or not. In fact, it has displayed the typical forms that those who have to act as arbitrators in autocratic regimes get. They give up making decisions.
As in the case of Xhaçka, when she avoided judging the essence, the constitutionalist has refused to do so for other hot issues. They refused to consider the concession of granting the Port of Durrës to Alabari, they voted against introducing in the plenary session the incompatibility of the election of Skënder Gjinushi, they behaved the same way when they were faced with the dilemma of whether it was legal or not to isolate Sali Berisha, and they applied the same standard when they were asked to comment on the non-establishment of the investigative commission for strategic investments.
Without mentioning here the Beleri case, for not allowing the oath of which the constitutional judges were listed alongside the kamikazes of the party in the new justice system.
So, the conclusion is that for the big issues, they either gave decisions in favor of the government or when they found it impossible to do so, they refused to express themselves, allowing it to be the beneficiary again.
This is exactly why the debate about the immunity of the former strategic minister is now important, to understand to what point the luminaries of the new justice have ended. And to think that in order to get to this point, the “old” court had to be completely destroyed, which in eight years had turned back a dozen decisions as unconstitutional after Berisha was prime minister (among them the famous sea agreement) and which continued the only rhythm to reverse the footsteps of his successor Rama. Boll and that is enough to understand where we have arrived./Lapsi
