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Berisha Loses Face in Battle with Institutions

02 11 2006 Government reaching impasse in head-on confrontation with courts, media and presidency.

By Ben Andoni in Tirana (Balkan Insight, 2 Nov 06)

Albania's premier, Sali Berisha, has made little progress in his struggles with a range of institutions that he believes are under the control of opposition Socialists.

An energetic campaign to see the dismissal of the attorney general, Theodhori Sollaku, has so far been a high-profile failure.

He has promised to continue to fight for his dismissal in order to "fight organised crime and corruption".

But the opposition dismisses the clean-up campaign as a front to put independent institutions under government control.

The premier's main problem has been the refusal of the president, Alfred Moisiu, to heed parliament's call for him to use his powers to dismiss the attorney general.

In a letter sent to parliamentarians, the president said scrutiny of the reports and intensive consultations with Albanian and American lawyers convinced him the call was unconstitutional.

The government in turn talks of a fresh investigation to bring about Sollaku's dismissal. "With this situation with the attorney general…Albania has reached the top of the list in Europe when it comes to organised crime," complained Berisha.

Government allies said it was pointless to expect a serious investigation from Sollaku's own underlings. "Subordinates don't ever investigate," Jozefina Topalli, vice-president of Berisha's Democratic Party, told Balkan Insight.

"Only independent attorneys such as Kenneth Star, can act,” she added, referring to the special investigator appointed to investigate former US president Bill Clinton's alleged misdemeanors.

Opposition officials condemn the attempt to sack the attorney general as part of a wider plan to put autonomous institutions under executive control.

"A strategy was drawn up immediately after [the elections in] July 2005 to attack all constitutional institutions," said Petro Koci, a senior Socialist official.

"We see this as a strategy to capture the state for the Democratic Party.

"It has complicated the functioning of state law and especially the relations between parliament and other constitutional bodies."

Berisha's campaign against the attorney general is hardly a surprise. Before taking power for a second time in Tirana in 2005, having served as president in the 1990s, he put reform of the justice system at the top of his agenda.

The attorney general was clearly in his sights as one of the most important elements of the system needing change.

But neither the premier nor parliament has any power to dismiss the occupant of the post.

The constitution entitles attorney general to stay in his post for life unless the president dismisses him.

Experts say this separation of powers is necessary to the functioning of a healthy democracy. "The autonomy or independence of judicial power is closely related to the whole concept of justice," said Luan Omari, a constitutional expert and former head of the Academy of Sciences.

"The prerogative [of dismissal] belongs only to the state; it's a state power, a state monopoly and an element of the state's sovereignty."

But this cuts little ice with new majority in parliament, which has clashed repeatedly with judicial institutions such as the High Legal Council, HLC, which handles promotions and discipline in the courts.

Having started as a clash over the credibility of a new member of HLC, the struggle has escalated into a serious confrontation between the executive and the courts.

Parliament has tried in vain to assert supremacy over the HLC, passing a law giving it power to review appointments to this supposedly independent institution. The Constitutional Court then struck it down, however.

The Berisha government has picked fights with several other independent institutions since taking power in 2005

It acted fast to amend the law on the managing councils for radio and television, for example, terminating the terms of office of the members of these institutions.

Parliament said it wished to broaden the membership to include selected candidates from civil society. But the opposition has another opinion.

Koci accuses the Democrats of "invading the National Council on Radio and Television", which he said was part of their "project to eliminate autonomy and institutionalise centralisation and complete dependency on government".

Another clash now looms over the proposed reform of the constitution, passed in 1998.

In the hope of avoiding a head-on clash, the two biggest political blocs signed an agreement on September 30.

But constitutional experts remain fearful that changes to the state's highest law will not be taken carefully enough and will instead reflect the needs of the day-to-day politics.

Parliament's Democratic speaker, however, says the document needs a re-think.

"The time has come to scrutinise it - especially those parts related to electoral system and certain institutions," said Topalli.

"It requires a sense of responsibility but with the current freezing of [political] relations it may be impossible."

The government is deeply unhappy with the president, although the ruling party proposed him as head of state in 2002.

Topalli said that the US president, George Bush, though elected directly by the people, rarely used his veto in Congress.

"But Moisiu has used his veto against all the issues that form the basis for party's reforms," he said.

Once again, the opposition sees this as an attempt to punish an independent institution of state.

"The attacks on the president of the republic, the attorney general and the High Legal Council are most dangerous," said Koci.

"Berisha thinks the Democratic Party victory last July gives him the right to rule not only the executive and legislature but the institutions of state."

Ben Andoni is a journalist with Mapo weekly. Balkan Insight is BIRN`s online publication.