Thousands of Albanians demonstrated in Tirana on Monday at the call of the country's president who accuses Prime Minister Edi Rama of wanting to take control of the justice system. "It is not the rule of law but the power of those who want to control everything in a mafia manner, even the powers granted by the Constitution to the president," launched the head of state, Ilir Meta. "Rama go!" , sent back the crowd gathered on a large boulevard in front of the seat of government, demanding the resignation of Edi Rama, in power for seven years.
Ilir Meta criticizes the Socialist Prime Minister "for wanting to control the procedures for the appointment of judges to the Constitutional Court" . The president accused Edi Rama of wanting to "kidnap the Constitutional Court" and denounced an attempted "coup" . This court has not been functioning for 18 months. The seats of six of nine judges are vacant following a verification procedure which established that these magistrates could not prove to have legally acquired their property. Their replacement has turned into a fierce battle of political parties.
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The president's call to protest, a former leader of a small center-left party, was supported by center-right opposition. The ruling socialists, for their part, launched a dismissal procedure targeting Ilir Meta, after his attempt to cancel the 2019 municipal elections boycotted by the opposition. Edi Rama for his part declared that the president's accusations went "against the efforts of Albania, which hopes to get the green light to open accession negotiations this spring" to the European bloc.
Under pressure from the European Union, which Albania aspires to join, in 2016 Tirana embarked on a profound reform of its judicial system, which is suffering from corruption. Under the impetus of France, Denmark and the Netherlands, the EU refused in October to open accession negotiations with the small Balkan country of 2.8 million inhabitants, as well as with Neighboring North Macedonia.