The decree by the President of the Republic, Bajram Begaj, of the law ratifying the $302 million loan agreement has prompted a harsh reaction from the opposition.
Through an official statement, the Chairman of the Democratic Party Parliamentary Group, Gazment Bardhi, considered the act of the Head of State as clear evidence of the destruction of the constitutional mechanisms of separation and control of powers by Prime Minister Edi Rama.
Bardhi states that the President has given up his role as guarantor of the Constitution by becoming a "notary of the acts of the socialist majority", while adding that this path taken constitutes a serious threat to democracy in the country.
The full reaction of the chairman of the DP Parliamentary Group, Gazment Bardhi:
"The announcement by the President of the Republic, on July 30, of the law ratifying the $302 million loan agreement, despite the flagrant violation of the Constitution during its approval procedure, is clear proof that in Albania Edi Rama has dismantled every constitutional mechanism of separation, balance and control of powers.
In a democratic state, the President of the Republic is not a notary of government decisions. The Constitution has given him the task of verifying whether laws have been adopted in accordance with constitutional procedures and, when he finds violations, exercising the power to return them for reconsideration. This is a fundamental mechanism of checks and balances of power, not a protocol formality.
Since Bajram Begaj took office, this mechanism has become practically non-existent. With the exception of one case that affected his personal interest, the President has not returned any law for reconsideration to the Assembly, even when it came to acts with serious constitutional problems, which were later confirmed as such by the Constitutional Court.
This is no longer the exercise of the constitutional function of the President. This is the surrender of the role of the Head of State to the will of the government. Bajram Begaj has chosen to be a notary of the acts of the socialist majority, instead of being a guarantor of the Constitution and a defender of institutional balance.
When the President gives up his powers, the Assembly functions as an extension of the government, and independent institutions are weakened or subjugated, then power is no longer divided, but concentrated. And the concentration of power in the hands of a single person is the greatest threat to any democracy.
Democracy is not always overthrown by a single act. It is eroded every day by the silence of institutions, the abandonment of constitutional obligations, and the acceptance of arbitrariness as a way of governing.
The act of the President of the Republic to promulgate this law, despite the obvious violation of the Constitution in the approval procedure, constitutes another blow to the constitutional order and the rule of law. It proves that the institution that should have been the last guarantee of the Constitution has chosen not to exercise this responsibility.
"I strongly condemn this act and the role that the President of the Republic is playing in weakening constitutionalism, the separation of powers and democracy in Albania. No one is above the Constitution and no one has the right to treat it as a formal obstacle to abuses of power."
