Outgoing Albanian Parliament to Vote on President’s Dismissal

The Socialists vowed to bring down Meta the moment they secured victory in a parliamentary election on April 25, without even waiting for the new MPs to take their seats in September.

They accuse Meta, a former Socialist prime minister who quit the party 17 years ago, of inciting violence and fomenting political instability with his statements before and during the election.

Meta, 51, says the move is illegitimate and unconstitutional, while analysts say the second attempt to bring him down under the current government is little more than another political broadside in the turbulent, long-running relationship between Meta and Edi Rama, leader of the Socialist Party and prime minister of Albania.

"Attempts to dismiss Meta for the second time within this mandate are a sign of political sterility from all sides," said communications expert Edlira Gjoni. "It is a waste of time and energy by MPs, distracting the attention of the public away from their real problems."

She said the allegations tabled by the parliamentary Commission of Inquiry "lack sophistication and legal seriousness."

A career politician who first entered parliament aged just 23, Meta is one of the most active and controversial Albanian politicians of the last two decades. In 1999, at the age of 30, Meta became prime minister for the first time. He was re-elected in 2001 but stepped down in early 2002 after a fallout with Socialist Party leader Fatos Nano.

In 2004, Meta's wing of the party broke away to form the Socialist Movement for Integration, LSI. Though the LSI consistently trails Albania's two big parties, the Socialists and the Democrats, it has repeatedly secured a slice of power with one or the other. Praised by some as a wily political operator, Meta...

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