Albanian President calls investigation committee illegal indictment

TIRANA, Albania (AP) – The Albanian president on Tuesday refused to appear before a parliamentary committee investigating whether he violates the country’s constitution and should be impeached.
President Ilir Meta sent a 28-page document to parliament in which he said the commission of inquiry lacked legitimacy and would continue to perform its duties while “ignoring any request from an unconstitutional and illegal institution “.
Albanian lawmakers formed the committee this month to decide whether to impeach Meta. More than four dozen lawmakers from the ruling Socialist Party have claimed Meta failed in its constitutional duty to ensure national unity by siding with the opposition ahead of the April 25 parliamentary elections.
Meta argues that because the parliament elected last month did not meet, the outgoing assembly is in a post-election transition period and therefore ineligible to conduct such investigative activities.
“Initiatives in such forms are unacceptable for democratic societies, considered as revenge, why not an institutional putsch or a coup d’état to seize constitutional institutions?” wrote Meta, who is in Slovenia following a regional summit.
The Socialists won 74 of the 140 seats in parliament in the election, which allowed them to form a cabinet themselves. Yet the removal of the Meta requires a two-thirds majority, which the Socialists do not have, and the approval of the Constitutional Court of Albania.
During the election campaign, Meta accused Prime Minister Edi Rama of leading a âkleptocratic regimeâ and of concentrating all legislative, administrative and judicial powers in his hands.
The presidency of Albania is largely ceremonial but exercises some authority over the judiciary and the armed forces. The role is also generally seen as apolitical, but Meta has regularly clashed with Rama’s government. His presidential term is expected to end in July 2022.