Clash in the Law Commission over territorial reform / Korreshi clashes with Manja: You treated the law like a bakery oven, the document came out immediately;…

The review of the administrative-territorial reform was accompanied by heated exchanges in the Law Commission, where the opposition challenged the way the draft was being handled and the pace of the process.

MPs Saimir Korreshi and Gent Strazimiri called for the positions of the municipalities and the opposition’s initiative to be taken into consideration before the procedure continued.

Korreshi accused the commission chair of giving priority to the majority’s initiative, while also mocking the way documents received from local government had been handled.

He called for all materials submitted to Parliament to be reviewed by the commission before a final decision was made.

“Albania has endless problems. These municipalities have a problem: they addressed Parliament, not Mazniku. They addressed the Parliament of the Republic of Albania. Has it been twinned with Niko? Look how the law came in: you had the oven hot, you rushed it through on August 31, immediately. It did not wait at all to come here; it went in and came straight back out. What about the previous documents? These people dealing with territorial reform know nothing, and we in the Law Commission are also asleep. We have not come here to talk about fish. The ones that died in Lushnje. When they send these initiatives to Parliament, at least let us receive them. All the mayors lined up one after another, while the gentleman says it is nine or ten others. They brought it on the 31st; did you put the pilaf into motion here, or was it soup? When you tell us to wait two weeks, ours has to sleep after sleeping. Apparently there was no sleep here, in the Divjakë municipality; the casserole was in the oven. You are the chef who cooks better. Why was ours not done within a day as well? Or did you have other work, Niko?” Korreshi said.

The chair of the Law Commission, Ulsi Manja, replied that the opposition’s initiative had also been sent to the municipalities for consultation, arguing that the procedure followed by Parliament had been the same.

“You are asking me why it was not done for your initiative. The Secretary-General of the Parliament of Albania informed me that your initiative was sent to all the municipalities in the same way as ours. Through the same procedure, as you requested. You submitted a bill and asked Parliament to send it to all the municipalities.

The MP Gent Strazimiri also joined the debate, accusing Manja of continuing the procedure without waiting for the local government’s positions to be fully reviewed. Strazimiri called for the two initiatives to be examined together and claimed that the action being taken was contrary to the Constitution and the law,” Manja stated.

Meanwhile, Strazimiri said: “The Constitution has silenced you; it has tied your hands and feet with its articles. You should have closed this meeting the first time I told you to. The municipal councils have stated in writing that they do not want it. You are lying too. We must listen to Mazniku.”

“Do not listen to him; we are listening to him,” Manja added. Meanwhile, Strazimiri continued: “You must wait for our initiatives to arrive as well, so that they can be brought together. You say that this will be over on the 8th. You are violating the Constitution and the law. What we are saying are arguments to help you understand that you are living in a time when this star no longer runs the state, but those two books you have there do. You are there to implement those books you have there, not to do as you please. There were 15 municipalities interested; now there are 16, including Krujë.”