Ilir Meta

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama (left) and the now resigned Mayor of Shkodra Valdrin Pjetri, during the Socialist Party election campaign. Photo: Facebook

Albania is in the grips of a deep constitutional and institutional crisis driven by a deliberate plot to hijack the state in the service of vested interests, the country's president, Ilir Meta, tells Kathimerini in an interview.

Albania President Ilir Meta at a press conference in Tirana on Tuesday. Photo: Gent Shkullaku/LSA

The Albanian president accused billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros of being responsible for what he called "a conspiracy aimed at totally capturing the state".

The elections were held in the tense atmosphere due to the fear of potential incidents, that were avoided.
Apart from the low turnout, those elections will be remembered by the boycott of the opposition that happened for the first time after the fall of the Communist regime in the country back in 1990, Macedonian web portal a1on reports.

An unknown number of Albanians will go to the polls this Sunday to elect 61 Mayors and 1,590 members of local councils in the most contested elections held in the country since the collapse of Communism almost three decades ago.

Albania opposition supporters protesting against Prime Minister Edi Rama in Tirana on June 21 2019. Photo: Gjergj Erebara/BIRN

The attack occurred on Thursday evening when about 200 people assembled at the election centre of the Municipality of Vau i Dejws, an opposition Democratic Party stronghold.

President Ilir Meta (left) and Prime Minister Edi Rama during a ceremony of remembrance for WWII heroes on May 5 2019. Photo: LSA

After the failure of the meeting requested by the President, Meta said he was setting a new date for the local elections, due on June 30.

Protesters faced off police in a dozen towns across Albania on Wednesday, as opposition-run municipalities demanded that the Central Election Commission, CEC, vacate municipal properties planned for use as polling stations in hotly disputed local elections, which the opposition is boycotting.

Bajram Curri. Photo: Wikimedia/Albinfo

Opposition supporters attacked and destroyed election material in the town of Bajram Curri, in north Albania on Tuesday, ahead of a hotly disputed local election due on June 30, which the opposition is boycotting and the President has tried to call off.

"The move by the Dutch parliament is unprecedented, because as far as I know, previously has not been such a demand for the Western Balkans and our countries," he said.