“The executive and the legislature have become one” — Former prosecutor Beci: a frightening relativization of institutions; reform is needed

The executive and legislative powers have merged and become one. That is how lawyer Eugen Beci, the former Serious Crimes prosecutor, put it, arguing that this frightening relativization of institutions has happened in order to build up a cult of executive power.

“Albania doesn’t have three legs but two, because someone has put one branch’s feet into a single shoe. The executive and the legislature had more dignity before 2014. In these years there has been a frightening relativization — parliament, the president, the minister and every independent institution have been relativized to raise the cult of executive power. There were higher-quality draft laws in previous parliaments. There has been a frightening relativization of every institution,” he stressed in the studio of television “A2CNN”.

Beci suggested that justice reform too should be done over from the beginning, since it has flaws and cannot be patched up.

The Constitution, in his view, is flawed as well.

“We have a lack of will, or irresponsibility, as in the case of the non-implementation of Constitutional Court decisions. Today the constitution looks more like a payroll slip showing how much the merged institutions will be paid. From the constitutional point of view Albania has a deficient Constitution, with elements that need to change. Have you heard that they will gather to fix what was temporary? No one has dealt with anything; they dealt with justice reform, which showed it was not done well. It should no longer be patched — it must be done from scratch. Magistrates should have gathered earlier as regards the judicial map,” the former magistrate said.