Xhaçka's mandate, VOA: Socialists prevent the case from being sent to the Constitutional Court

In Albania, for the third time, the vote of the socialist deputies prevents the passage of the former Foreign Minister Olta Xhaçka's mandate to the Constitutional Court.

In contrast to the two previous cases, the socialists chose after midnight on Thursday, to abstain this time in the majority (65 votes) and only 9 expressed against.

Only the 25 votes of the opposition deputies, which were in favor, could not do anything. The conclusion remained the same, despite the fact that according to the president of the Constitutional Court, Holta Zaçaj, "no one can decide not to execute the decision of the Constitutional Court. The force of its decisions is equal to the force of law. Not to implement the decision of the Constitutional Court, means not to implement the Constitution and the law".

The case of the mandate of deputy Xhaçka has its origins in June 2022, when 14 democratic deputies addressed the parliament with a motion to declare the invalidity and end of the mandate of the former minister.

At the same time, a few days later, a similar motion was presented by another group of opposition MPs. According to them, Mrs. Xhaçka was in a conflict of interest, given that her husband, former Socialist MP Artan Gaçi, had benefited from the status of a strategic investor for the construction of a hotel on the coast of Dhërmi.

While Ms. Xhaçka herself has insisted that she has not benefited a penny from public funds, and that the status that her husband has benefited from does not predict that something like this will happen.

At that time, the socialists assessed that the criteria for sending the case to the Constitutional Court were not met. In November 2022, they voted against the opposition's motion, which immediately went to the Court.

The latter was faced with two requests, one from 1 tenth of the deputies, for the resolution of the dispute of powers between them and the parliament and the annulment of the decision taken by it, and the other, from 1 fifth of the deputies who, in addition to the annulment of the decision , required the finding of incompatibility in the exercise of the mandate, i.e. the review by her, directly of the case.

The court passed both requests in the court session, but in the end, in January 2023, it gave the right to 1 tenth of the deputies, overturning the decision of the parliament and assessing that the case should be handled by it and not by the parliament, which according to the Constitution, he should have accepted the motion of the opposition. While the request of 1 fifth of the deputies was dismissed.

For more than 1 year, the case was delayed by the parliament, and only in April 2024, it passed again to the plenary session, where the 72 votes against the majority, again blocked the sending of the case to the Constitutional Court.

Socialists referred to the legal definition that "parliament decides" and that decisions are made by vote, and deputies are free to vote, and that this is defined in the Constitution, which states that their mandate is not binding.

The opposition called the position of the socialists a "constitutional coup" and appealed to the court again, which in July of this year again annulled the decision of the parliament, again asking the parliament to refer the case to it.

Speaker Zaçaj said that: "MPs must vote in accordance with the order of the Court, as this vote is not an ordinary parliamentary procedure and as such has nothing to do with the principle of the non-binding mandate of the MP, but is within the framework of the execution of the decision of the Court".

It remains unclear how it will proceed, and whether the opposition MPs will again seek the intervention of the Court, which has practically put itself in direct conflict with the parliament.

President Elisa Spiropali, representative of the socialist majority, said after the vote that she would immediately go to the Venice Commission, to make an interpretation of the situation, which, like never before, has pitted two of the country's most important institutions against each other. ./VOA