Tirana under lockdown
More than 250 cars stopped, crackdown on drug traffickers and wanted criminals
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With clean hands
Prime Minister Fatos Nano once again raised the issue of state corruption at the beginning of this week, when, during a meeting, he told the Italian anti-mafia prosecutor that the “Mani Pulite” (Clean Hands) operation was a valuable experience for Albania as well. Although Pier Luchini Vinja had come to Tirana to investigate the possibility of Italian criminal networks infiltrating Albanian pyramid schemes, the prime minister’s statement represents a broader commitment. How will state corruption be addressed after 29 June? What will happen to those who, during the years of the PD’s rule, got their hands dirty with oil smuggling, arms trafficking, the buying and selling of court proceedings, or privatization auctions?
At the same time as his chief, the Minister of Justice also stated at his latest press conference that there had been suffocating corruption in the Albanian justice system and that the High Council of Justice would soon establish a commission to vet judges.
In fact, the two senior representatives of the state did nothing more than remind Albanians this week of the refrain they had repeated tirelessly during five years in opposition. All that time, the issue the Socialists and the parties around them had attacked the PD government over most forcefully was state corruption. The stories of Arsid, the ship Sotiris, the “Shqiponja” company, and so on, became almost commonplace in the mouths of former opposition leaders and in the pages of the press. For five years, the former opposition had tried to convince taxpayers that their money was going to waste, that it was being devoured by the huge machine of state corruption. This was, among other things, one of the most frequently discussed themes during the last three election campaigns, when the Socialists and their allies sought to win the votes of Albanians.
Today, however, things are different. The former opposition now controls all state institutions, yet there has been no call to launch investigations into any former senior official, so heavily accused during the PD’s time in government. Moreover, although all the ministries’ archives are in its hands, not a single document has yet been published as evidence for the earlier accusations.
Today, the hard-line figures of the former opposition can no longer content themselves with vague statements that the country needs a Clean Hands operation, or some kind of commission to vet former officials. For five years they asked Albanians to vote against the PD because it had robbed them. Now they must either point out the thieves or apologize to voters for the votes they snatched from them in the name of anti-corruption.
ANDI BUSHATI