Justicialism: New Justice or Reborn Justice?

Alfred Lela

The subsequent scandals—they have become so numerous that it is hard to count them —revealed the same systemic problem in the government and the largest municipality in the country, led by Erion Veliaj.

A dozen high-ranking directors, clustered around a private-municipal 'corporation' named 5D, served as manipulators of dubious activities in Tirana's government.

For comparison, it can be said that, as the government fell after the corruption of some ministers, the municipality also fell, precisely through the fall of its 'ministers,' senior directors.

All this is bringing back, for the seventh time in the public discourse, the attitude of the government and the municipality, baptized in the famous writings as justicialismo. In summary, this term marks the exchange of political governance after its decline, even if symbolic, with a new type of governance where justice takes over with its apparatus of prosecutors-courts.

When you heard Mayor Veliaj's face, finally, the public pressure against the involvement of close collaborators in suspected corruption, this 'handover' of the public's keys to a body that Albanians do not vote for, justice, turned a blind eye.

If you were to concentrate Rama and Veliaj's speech in a short phrase, it would be 'we steal, but justice is strong'.

This is, therefore, judicialism and it is hazardous.

First, because it does not perform what parliamentary democracies are based on, the separation of powers, but superimposes one power against another, according to the moment's needs. In this case, the executive is happy to govern without interruption, releasing some of its exponents into the throats of justice. This looks like a claim by the public - they steal but are also punished - but what does not produce is responsibility. Where is the political responsibility in this case? Who holds it? Who reflects?

Secondly, politics, through the government and the municipality, cannot present justice as a shield to the Albanian voters. It is as if for nothing else because in Albania, unlike in America, there is no direct vote for prosecutors and judges. So, the governing Pontius Pilate does not wash his hands, saying that the Jewish juridical body solves the punishment of Christ and that it is not a matter of political Rome but the work of bandits and courts.

This is done to strip the government/municipality of its responsibilities and shift the public debate towards "Christ or Barabbas?" type questions. In the end, Barabbas is saved, although there is no Christ in this game of ours.

It should be added that this new illegitimate state based on justicialismo suits the new justice, if only for the banal fact that it motivates them to demand salary increases and other benefits from the government (as they have done). Without forgetting their idealization through polls that heroize them and help the government.

This Mephistophelian pact between the government and justice allowed an ad hoc justicialismo to undo the state-building efforts of 32 years of several governments. The executive cannot hide behind the judiciary nor resolve political crises through it. The judiciary cannot play the role of the armor of the government, guarding its leaders and rolling 'scapegoats.' Whoever heads the political campaigns must bear the burden of guilt for the team he builds and chooses to govern after the victory.

The introduction of justice between this democratic axiom, the public, and its interests is nothing less than the legal body that executes Christ and puts Barabbas into circulation (Christ, in this case, is a just system of the legal and democratic state).