By Veto Surroi
The debate about beliefs with the “Bektashi Vatican” and the imprisonment of MP Salianji as a punishment for free speech are new and completely unnecessary problems for a state that, with major problems such as organized crime, will begin EU membership negotiations
1.
Albania can paraphrase the title of VI Lenin’s book from the beginning of the 20th century “One step forward, two steps back: the crisis in our party”, replacing the word “party” with that of “state”. So, the past and future days may indicate a disorder in the functioning of the state, perhaps even as an unpleasant warning for the future.
Let’s start from the first step.
Albania is expected to finally start negotiations for membership in the European Union in mid-October. The country has been kept as a candidate for membership for ten years and during these ten years there was no reason related to Albania that would have prevented the opening of the negotiation chapters. Albania was held hostage due to the identity issues arising from the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia, being already part of the Western Balkans Club (together with the 5 states that emerged from the former Yugoslavia).
For ten years, the country paid the price of the identity problems between North Macedonia and Greece and recently also Bulgaria, the relationship between Kosovo and Serbia, the constitutional paralysis of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the process of contestation of Montenegro as a nation and a state.
From the middle of October, it will no longer be important for Albania in relations with the EU what is written in the Macedonian books about the Bulgarian revolutionary heroes, what the Community of Serbian municipalities in Kosovo might look like, why Dodik might declare invalid the mention of the Srebrenica genocide or the issue of the existence of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church recognized by the Istanbul Patriarchate. This whole conglomerate of problems was there every time the integration of the Western Balkans was debated, and somehow Albania was implicitly included as part of the region.
At the moment of the opening of the first “cluster”, Albania will negotiate on the basis of its own merits.
2.
At this point, before opening the heavy chapters for Albania – such as the rule of law – the country faced problems that are serious indicators for the state.
Prime Minister Rama offered serious arguments for criticism of the nature of the state when he came up with his initiative for the “Muslim Vatican”, namely “Bektashi sovereignty” within the territory of Albania. The prime minister violated with both feet the basic constitutional rule that Albania can be proud of, and that “the state is neutral in matters of faith”. The Prime Minister explained that “unlike other communities, which have the natural advantage of belonging to very large communities with a global scope – so they also have great opportunities for uninterrupted support on their way – the Bektashi community is, so to speak, an “orphan” in this perspective. That is why raising the status of the World Chief Justice in Albania to the level of a sovereign entity would not only significantly reduce the real threat of the shrinking of that community to dissolution in the span of several decades, but would also guarantee a stable continuity of existence. his for generations”. Thus, he intervened in the field which is not allowed, that of beliefs. Because the secular state, although originally built to protect the state from religion, also has the obligation to protect religion from the state.
Moreover, the country’s prime minister is opening a case that is already legally and practically regulated. Albania has recognized Christian and Islamic subjectivity and pluralism – the Council of Ministers and the four religious communities (the Muslim Community, the Autocephalous Orthodox Church, the Bektashi Patriarchate, the Evangelical Brotherhood) have signed an Agreement which transforms them into legal subjects. To these has been added the State Agreement with the Vatican that also regulates the matter of the subjectivity of the Catholic Church in the country.
From a legal and practical point of view, there is nothing that endangers trust in the country. In other words, there is nothing that endangers religious communities apart from the completely unnecessary political intervention of the most powerful political man in Albania. After his initiative, the first reaction was that of the Muslim community, which, apart from feeling offended by the assessment of Islam by the Prime Minister, also offered to deny the subjectivity of the Bektashi by offering them as the umbrella of “all sects”.
3.
In the following days, the Prime Minister also took a wrong side in a very sensitive issue of political freedoms by imprisoning the leader of the Democratic Party Parliamentary Group, Ervin Salianji.
As of this week, Salianji is serving the all-powerful one-year prison sentence for something that in every European country, including Albania, should be the right of free expression not only of the member of the Assembly, but also of every ordinary citizen. This right of free expression also means the right to be wrong, because the right to be wrong is the essence of democratic debate. Infallibility is the opposite of democracy, therefore the members of the Parliament speak fearlessly lest they eventually make a mistake and end up in prison. Correction of mistakes in expression is done in Parliament and in elections.
Exercising his right to speak, even wrongly, Salianji made several public accusations against a minister of the Rama Government and his brother who had been convicted of crimes. These accusations sent to “urbi et orbi”, i.e. to no one in particular, were found to be insufficient to initiate criminal proceedings. In a democratic order, the case would be closed like that, and in the worst case, Salianji would pay the political tax for an accusation which was insufficient for the prosecution.
But two courts, one of the first instance and the other of the appeal, sent him to prison for a nonviolent crime. Salianji was sentenced for “false report”, which is a criminal offense which is legally consummated when the person presents orally or in writing his denunciation of a criminal offense to the investigative bodies, the police and the prosecutor, and that denunciation turns out to be intentionally untrue. Salianji did not do this and is now in prison as the first person convicted of a “verbal offense” in post-communist Albania, which is opening EU membership negotiations.
Prime Minister Rama, known at the beginning of his public activism as one of the most prominent liberal figures committed to freedom of expression, would do well to take the right side, that of protecting the right of expression of his political opponents . It is not only a moral value, but also a practical one, for a country with democratic aspirations like Albania, which needs an opposition.
Moreover, Prime Minister Rama has the possibility of using a legal precedent in defense of Mr. Salianji’s right. Another deputy of the opposition, Gazment Bardhi, accused the prime minister’s brother of being involved in drug trafficking. The prime minister’s brother submitted the media statement of Deputy Bardhi to the Prosecutor’s Office with accusations of “false accusation”, but the Prosecutor’s Office rejected this denunciation, because the words of Deputy Bardhi were expressed in the media and not deposited in the Prosecutor’s Office. Exactly as in the Salianji case.
4.
Albania, freed beyond the identity problems of its neighbors, is quickly entering the opening of additional problems. As if the “elephant in the room” was not enough – the disproportionate presence compared to European countries of organized crime in the country’s economy and institutional functioning – the creation of new problems from those that did not exist until yesterday, such as the issue of beliefs or free expression, is an omen worse for the future of the country’s European negotiations.
