President of the Republic of Albania, Ilir Meta called on the country’s political class to assume responsibility for the political crisis which he considered it to be serious.

Are you willing to initiate a dialogue between the parties and how do you asses the violence against protesters? 

The subject of the activity, I had the pleasure to attend with Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, had to do with the culture of love, opposite to the culture of rejection. I believe that is useful also for the critical question you are posing.

President Meta will you take the initiative for an inclusive round table? 

I want to assure you and all Albanians that the President has taken all possible steps, well in time, to avoid this serious political, constitutional, institutional crisis, which is now framing also as a crisis of representation.

It’s regrettable that parties have precipitated and are still rushing to deepen this crisis. Still it is my obligation to once again appeal for reflection by all, because we have to safeguard the interests of the country and of the citizens who request normality.

At the same time we have to continue to enhance Albania’s contribution as a factor of stability in a region that is still facing important challenges. This internal context does not help.

Question: Do you have a comment on the stance of the international representatives? 

I think that the Albanian political class must take its own responsibilities and cannot hide behind any international representative, as has happened insofar. All issues must be resolved through dialogue, in transparent and principled fashion, far from trading or even misuse of individual international representatives.

Mr. President, has the report of SIS (SHISH), talking about the risk of Russian influence in Albania, come to your office? 

We are well aware of an, unfortunately, often toxic Russian influence in our region, but I do not believe that this is the case in Albania. We would like that Russia respect the choice of all the peoples of this region to integrate in the European Union and in NATO, although it remains its right to react otherwise.

Nevertheless, we must not degrade Russian threat in simile to the “Anglo-American peril” during our dark past, to conceal the real roots of this constitutional, political, moral representative crisis, which has been created by us and requires reflection from all. /noa.al/