By Filip Çakuli
The Minister of Justice visited the Fier prison to meet Erion Veliaj. According to his statement, the visit was meant to see the conditions in which the mayor of Tirana is being held. But, oddly enough, he did not visit the cell.
The meeting took place in the prison director’s office, where the minister saw the furniture and amenities and became convinced that conditions in our prisons are something to envy.
So, a visit to an office was enough to make a general diagnosis of prison conditions. As for Veliaj’s cell, however, we will have to wait for some more specific report.
Now, while the minister tells us about the furniture, Veliaj reveals another story to us.
In a public letter, he claims that the minister had not gone simply to see pre-trial detention conditions, but to convey certain messages from “above.”
According to Veliaj, the message was clear: resign from the Municipality of Tirana, hand the post to Arbër Hajdari, who has long been spoken of as a possible successor, admit to having helped fund the protests against Rama, and drop his defense lawyer.
That the letter was written by Veliaj himself is confirmed by his lawyer, Plarent Ndreca.
If these claims are true, then we have a situation that cannot be passed off with a diplomatic smile. The prime minister, instead of confronting politically a rival within his own party, would have chosen to use the Minister of Justice as a messenger, even inside the prison walls.
A method that, even by the standards of Albanian politics, would be amateurism of the highest order.
But before we pass a verdict, we need to know whether this story is true. Because, for the moment, we have two versions: that of the minister, who speaks of good prison conditions, and that of Veliaj, who speaks of political messages. One tells us about the furniture, the other tells us about what is happening behind the scenes.
And here the question arises: what has so troubled Rama?
Perhaps Veliaj’s public statements about the youth protests in Belgrade, where he expressed support for the protesters and drew parallels with developments in Tirana, have been an alarm signal for the prime minister. If a socialist detainee starts speaking the language of protests and expresses solidarity with movements that could become an example for Albania too, then political friendship can quickly turn into a disciplinary problem.
Even Veliaj’s transfer from Durrës to Fier, accompanied by claims of harsher conditions and a stricter regime, feeds the suspicion that something has changed in the relationship between him and the prime minister. Of course, the transfer in itself does not prove any political revenge. But when it happens in this context, questions are inevitable.
Once, Rama and Veliaj appeared as two protagonists of the same political story. One at the head of the government, the other at the head of the capital. A duo that for years seemed unbreakable. Today, however, we get the impression that the chapter of friendship is closing and the chapter of confrontation is opening.
A political schism? (The term schism was used in 1054 for the division of the Christian Church into Catholic and Orthodox) Or merely an attempt to discipline a collaborator who has begun to step out of line?
And while Rama and Veliaj seem to communicate through statements, letters and ministers, the Socialist Party continues to remain silent.
There is something telling in this silence. Because we are not talking about two ordinary politicians, but about the prime minister and the mayor of the capital, two important figures of the same party.
Is the PS perhaps waiting to see who will win this duel? Or has the answer already been given, without any need for a party meeting?
After all, in a party where decisions are made from above, the structures do not need to interpret much. It is enough for them to understand which way the wind is blowing.
And the wind, as is known, in the Socialist Party usually blows from the leader.
The question that remains is whether we are dealing with a temporary rift between two friends, or with the end of a political relationship that once seemed irreplaceable.
For now, Rama is silent, Veliaj speaks, the minister denies having seen any cell, and the PS does what it does best: collective silence.
But in politics, silence is not always the absence of an answer. Sometimes it is the clearest answer.