On April 28th 2017, during the second last round of elections, Ilir Meta won 87 votes in favor and 2 against, becoming the new President of Albania.
Those were the last days of his alliance with the socialists, who had already started accusing him of being a supporter of the tent raised by Lulzim Basha and the opposition in front of the Prime Minister’s Office, as a sign of protest.
Meta, who for 4 years had served as the Chairperson of the Albanian Parliament, stated that he would campaign for SMI (Socialist Movement for Integration), until July, when he took his oath.
During the campaign, his party, whose leadership had been taken over by Petrit Vasili, was the center of accusations from Rama as well as Basha.
The president decreed the new government on September 10th 2017, and for some time after, the tones between him and the prime minister remained stable.
However, on November 22nd 2017, the president returned for further evaluation, the ruling party’s law on judicial tariffs.
This would be the first of a long series of laws overturned by the president on the grounds of being “anti-constitutional”, – a total of 60 laws since 2017.
This was a much larger number than the 4 presidents that preceded him, who if put together had only opposed the ruling party in 42 legal initiatives.
With few exceptions, almost all of his decrees were overturned and the laws went into force unchanged. On the other hand, the parliament overturned three candidatures of the president for the position of Head of KLSH.
A clash that significantly worsened his relationship and verbal communication with the ruling party, was the refusal to decree Sander Lleshaj as Internal Affairs Minster.
Edi Rama had to send his name to the presidency twice and only after the former General of the Brigade accepted to be released from the Armed Guard, he was able to receive Ilir Meta’s signature on November 16th 2018.
A similar situation was repeated on January 2019, when one of a series of names decreed as new ministers, was refused by Ilir Meta, – and that was Gent Cakaj, who was being nominated as Foreign Minister. On January 18th, PM Edi Rama was decreed in this position.
The tones had become so tense and the situation so aggravated that the issue was taken to the Constitutional Court, to discuss whether the President could actually refuse to decree the PM’s cabinet ministers.
The biggest conflict with the ruling party, which also led to the start of the procedures for his impeachment was June 8th. Together with the opposition MPs, he had “burned” or relinquished his parliamentary mandate and had been protesting for months. At this time, the President issued a decree, through which he annulled the previous one, which had set June 30th 2019, as the date of the local elections.
The elections took place regardless and on July 8th, the ruling party assembled an Inquiry Commission for the President’s impeachment.
In November, another clash between the ruling party and the Council of Appointments in the Justice System became part of this commission’s investigations, as a possible motive to dismiss the president.
Ranked first in the Council’s list, Arta Vorpsi was assumed elected by the ruling party as a member of the Constitutional Court, because the president didn’t come up with a statement within 30 days.
She took her oath at the notary, instead of with the president, as is required in the Constitution. Ilir Meta elected Marsia Xhaferllari for the same position, who kept it after an interpretation of the matter by the Constitutional Court.
After a year of investigations, nine meetings and after having headed to the Venice Commission twice, the inquiry commission decided to not impeach the president but only suggested several constitutional and legal changes.
A special law was drafted by a group of socialist MPs but it was never deposited in parliament.
Eight months later, the same parliament began procedures for the impeachment of President Meta and today, the final decision is expected to be voted in Parliament.
