New Government in Albania

Meta - The Last Card of the Socialists

AIM Tirana, 28 October, 1999

After the expected resignation of Pandeli Majko who had lost in the race for president of the Socialist Party to former president Fatos Nano, another 30-year old Ilir Meta was given the mandate to form the new government. This will be the third cabinet of the left coalition in the past three years headed by Socialists.

Nomination of Meta to head the government fills the two-week vacuum created after Majko had been defeated at the convention of the party. The government of Majko is leaving neither because of its mistakes, nor as a result of pressure exerted by the opposition. Majko's cabinet is simply the victim of a political struggle within the Socialist Party and the clash of rival groups in this party.

If anyone wished to draw up a balance sheet of the effects of Majko's cabinet, one could say that it will be remembered for its achievements, among which overcoming the crisis of Kosovo is the most prominent one, but also for its failures especially the incapability to restore public order and state authority in the whole country. But maybe it will also be remembered as the cabinet which has left for reasons which lay more outside than within it.

Thirty-one year old Majko is leaving the severe ring of Albanian politics defeated but proud. He could not or would not create his own political clan and that is why he was thrown out of the game.

Except for the post of the prime minister, Majko has also lost the post of secretary general of his party and it is difficult to predict what his political future will be like.

However, although Nano came out as the winner over Majko, outside this duel, the relation of forces in the Socialist Party is more or less a tie. Both groups have a almost the same number of representatives in the bodies of the party and its parliamentary group. The new government will be forced to reflect this balance. It seems that it will be some sort of an inter-Socialist alliance, or a kind of a coalition of two rival factions of the Socialists, a union or an association which nobody can tell how lasting it will be. This greatly depends on the fact whether these two groups will behave as members of a single party or as two parties under the same umbrella.

The new prime minister Meta is in fact the winner of the race run by Nano and Majko and at the same time the only possible formula for a compromise.

A thirty-year old, born in Skrapar in the south of Albania, a bachellor of economics, Meta is a pragmatic and ambitious politician who has always known to strongly play for his own benefit, but to make concessions as well. His engagement in politics began in December 1990 when he was one of the participants of students' protests which had led to the fall of the Stalinist regime in Albania. Meta is a participant of the historical meeting of students with the then president Ramiz Alija which resulted in establishment of multipartism in Albania. However, contrary to the other students, his colleagues, Meta like Majko did not join the Democratic Party of the opposition, but created a Euro-Socialist group of youth inside the Socialist Party (former communists) which played the main role in reforming ¯he party. Meta is still the head of this group which is called the Euro-Socialist Forum of Youth which is part of the Socialist International of Youth. Meta's wife Monika Madhi is deputy president of the Socialist Internationale of Youth.

For a long time Meta was in charge of foreign relations of the Socialist Party which made him known to the European left. After June 1997 elections which had brought the "League for the State" coalition to power, Meta participated in both cabinets. In Nano's cabinet he was state secretary for Euro-Atlantic associations, and in Majko's cabinet he was deputy prime minister. During the Kosovo crisis last spring, Meta was special commissioner of the government for managing the influx of refugees.

New prime minister of Albania is not an ally of Socialist president Nano, he is even one of his oldest rivals. Meta did not hesitate to oppose Nano from the time when the latter was in prison last to the day when Nano proclaimed his cadidacy for prime minister. Meta's relations with Nano and his group have been and still are strained, so if clear rules of the game are not set, his government might experience the same destiny as Majko's. The Socialists have in this way just mitigated the crisis, indeed what they have managed to do is saw up the wounds, but they have not performed a radical surgery.

In his first statements after taking the mandate, Meta made it clear that his cabinet would continue the work Majko had begun. "We will only officially have a new cabinet. My cabinet will be just a clear and consistent continuity of Majko's government", said Meta in his first interview in the capacity of prime minister.

Meta immediately made public only one name in his future cabinet, that of the minister of public order - the key post in the country which still has not overcome the state of anarchy. This post will be kept by Spartak Poci who has for months held the post of the minister of public order in the previous cabinet and who had initiated a vigorous campaign against armed gangs which made him one of the most popular personages on the political scene in Tirana and one of the people who enjoys the strongest support of the West.

It is still unknown who will be number two in the government, but it is evident that this post will go to Nano's faction. Names which are mentioned most frequently are that of mayor of Tirana Magbulje Ceco and former minister of finance in Nano's cabinet Arben Malaja.

All things considered, foreign minister Milo and minister of defence Hajdaraga will remain at their posts, and the biggest changes will take place in the ministries of the economy, privatisation, finance etc.

Nomination of Meta seems to have caused discontent in Nano's camp which appears to be dissatisfied with the second best role in the government. This could endanger if not the secret vote of confidence in the parliament, but certainly the longevity of Meta's government.

And while changes at the top of the government were received calmly by Albanian citizens, they were received by Berisha's opposition very negatively and it announced a new campaign of protests aimed at scheduling early elections. The opposition press which was not very critical about Meta is nowadays treating him as a man who is selling ideals for the sake of a high post in the administration.

Meta took sides with Majko when the latter met for the last time last December with former president Berisha, which was a meeting that caused polemics in the Socialists' camp. Speaking to the journalists, Meta spoke in favour of the dialogue with the opposition clearly stating that he took a completely different stand from that of Nano's who was very critical of the meeting of Majko and Meta with Berisha. It is predictable that the opposition will intensify demands for scheduling new elections.

There can be no doubt that Meta is the last card of the Socialists. After Meta, new elections will follow, regardless of when they will take place. If Meta's cabinet manages to overcome the main challenges of Albanian society: struggle against crime, corruption and economic growth, its life will be longer than it was of the other Socialist cabinets which did not last for more than a year. On the contrary, its life will be even shorter.

The only positive fact which resulted from the latest splits is the awareness of the need to make compromises, to foster the culture of compromise and dialogue which Albania lacked. After all, when cabinets within the same political force are changing without a hubbub and violence, this is positive. This is the first peaceful change of cabinet in nine years of the Albanian post-communist transition. But the most significant still remains to be tried, rotation of power without violence, the test the Albanians have not passed yet.

AIM Tirana

Remzi LANI