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Is European Taxpayer Money Being Used to Install a One-Party State in Albania?

Edi RAMA, Prime Minister of Albania
Edi RAMA, Prime Minister of Albania. July 2018. (Photo: Nikolay Doychinov)

Communism is coming back to Albania. The one-party state is controlling every branch of the government, parliament, and justice. The Albanian Prime Minister (PM) Edi Rama is becoming the Kim Jong-un of Europe.

Rama already totally controls the central and local government, the media, and very soon the Constitutional Court – the ultimate instrument that will allow him to establish a North Korean-like regime at the heart of Europe.

Rama has appointed his people to the top of all the judicial institutions, and now is appointing his most trusted ones as judges of the Constitutional Court, using maneuvers that openly violate the Constitution and all the laws on the matter.

His latest maneuver was via Ardian Dvorani, the Chair of the Justice Appointments Council (an administrative judicial body), who used anti-constitutional methods to assure the preselection of the Constitutional Court judges in order to accomplish the PM’s mission of having total control of the Constitutional Court and use the judges as his puppets. With this court, which is supposed to preserve the rule of law and the balance of power, under his control, PM Rama can do anything and nothing will be in his way.

All the power in the hands of one man.

Tragically, this is at the expense of the Albanian people, but it is done with European taxpayers’ money.

A German, Dutch, French, Greek hard-working man or woman, or anyone else belonging to another EU country is paying for the installment of a Communist-like one-party state in a small country that aspires to join the EU.

For the last three years, millions of Euros and US dollars from the EU and the US have been used on Albanian Justice Reform which has produced catastrophic results.

The country was left on purpose by Rama without a Constitutional Court and a High Court for two years. The files awaiting to be dealt with in the High Court have reached 35,000 and it would take decades to be processed. Meanwhile, this chaos and total absence of a judicial system and mechanisms have gone in favor of PM Rama who now is exercising his powers as a PM, a Judge and a Supreme Leader, turning the country back into Communism rather than moving forward toward EU integration.

Considering this anti-democratic situation and the total collapse of justice occurring in Albania, the Northern Macedonian PM, Zoran Zaev, refused to allow such a reform to take place in his country: “Albania has no capacity now to fill the vacancies in the judicial institutions and this should not happen to us. Now they are without a Constitutional Court and a High Court, which is not permissible,” he stated.

This grave situation has raised many concerns abroad.

The funding of this justice mess and scandal may also involve corruption. Alarmed by this situation, Doris Pack, the well-known European politician, Head of the Women Forum of EPP and former Member of the European Parliament, appealed for an investigation on the distribution of EU funds.

Is there any serious investigation into this scandal by the EU? Can we continue to support with EU taxpayers money for this capture of the Albanian justice system by Prime Minister Rama?” Pack asked.

The German advisor and analyst Martin Henze has also asked a direct question of many European leaders as to why the EU is funding a reform that overthrows the rule of law. In his appeal to the Dutch Prime Minister Marc Rutte, he stated:

“Marc, both Europeans, Germans, and European taxpayers question why there is a catastrophic European Union-funded justice reform in Albania that overthrows the rule of law and promotes an indisputable violation of the Constitution by the Rama government?”

Henze also addressed the EU Ambassador in Tirana, Albania, Luigi Soreca, by stating: “And political Europe, Mr Soreca, and the international press, will now look very closely at the process of distributing EU funds in Albania, including the engagement of the EU ambassador. As you know, the government administration, government Rama are among those suspected of corruption.”

Indeed, during the Rama years, the level of corruption has increased dramatically. A recent International Transparency report showed that Albania’s index of corruption has increased during 2015-2018. Albania is now ranked at number 99 out of 180 countries.

Furthermore, during the Rama years, the credibility of Albanians toward the EU has dropped. Even among EU countries suspicion has been raised over the relationship between their governments and the Edi Rama administration. The German Bundestag is concerned with possible lobbying from Edi Rama at the Federal Foreign Office in Germany, headed by an SPD party Minister, a twin party of Edi Rama’s Socialist Party.

The US Embassy has also invested millions of dollars into this experimental project of Albanian Justice Reform.

An inquiry by both EU and US authorities is needed to find out why the taxpayers of the most democratic countries in the world are supporting the establishment of an anti-democratic regime in a country that needs democracy and European integration. Why are millions of Euros and US dollars being spent to bring back Communism in the country that suffered severely from that regime for almost half a century? Why are ordinary Americans and European people investing in establishing a one-man dictatorship, that of the Albanian PM, Edi Rama?

An inquiry of such an important matter for this country into the use of funds and the corruption agenda that hides under the name of justice would bring true justice not only for this small European country but also for the taxpayers in Europe and the US.

This inquiry must be done as soon as possible and the people responsible for this scandalous situation and abuse of funds must be held accountable.

Rama is issuing laws that censure the media in direct violation of the freedom of speech.

The opposition, in a gesture of revolt against total seizure of the state, has abandoned en masse their mandates in Parliament, leaving Rama with total control of the legislative branch. He has already held one-party voting for the local elections resulting in controlling 61 municipalities of Albania, out of which 31 were held with only one candidate.

Under Rama’s rule, the country has been dubbed by international media the “Colombia of Europe,” due to the cultivation of cannabis across Albanian and rampant drug trafficking and organized crime. Yet, he is profiting from EU funds to capture the justice system and the Constitutional Court to ultimately serve his goal of establishing a one-party and one-man state.

Dr. Francesca Norton

Dr. Francesca Norton is a peer news writer for Citizen Truth. She is a political analyst, human rights activist and author of many articles and analyses in the international media.

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