Scandals that do not allow for elections!

2025-06-26 19:38:00, Opinione Grigels Muçollari

The elections are over, change was forcibly stopped and, as usual, the bitter reality continues. Scandals deepen, delays increase, those responsible are hidden. While citizens were called to vote, justice institutions continue to play with vital issues for the public health and environmental safety of the country.

One of my early denunciations as an opposition representative, which has now become the subject of an investigation, is related to the illegal export of hazardous waste from Albania abroad. A serious affair, where in addition to the involvement of private companies, the deliberate failure of institutions to act with transparency and responsibility is also being exposed.

The Durrës Prosecutor's Office has officially admitted that it has not reached an agreement with the first laboratory and that it is looking for another one abroad. But in the meantime, certified laboratories in Albania offer these analyses within a few hours at a cost of only 306 euros per sample. What then justifies this delay?

International activists like Jim Puckett from the organization BAN have called this delay “shameful” and “politically charged.” He himself suggested to the Prosecutor’s Office a serious European laboratory for the analysis, but then learned that attempts were being made to do everything domestically. Why? Who has an interest in checking the results? What is being hidden?

According to a BIRN investigation, the amount seized is just the tip of the iceberg. Everything is under the government's blessing. There is no chance that such tons could be moved without the knowledge of the Ministry of Environment or the Port Director.

Procrastinating investigations is no longer a technical or budgetary issue. It is a strategy. It is a way to cover up those responsible and indefinitely postpone any process that could lead to the bitter truths of a rotten system.

And precisely for this reason, this government is forced to distort the will of the citizens in the elections. Because a free, honest vote, with independent institutions, would not allow for silence, delay, or cover-up of scandals of this nature. This is why the opposition has strongly denounced the electoral farce of 2025. Not for seats, but because in a functioning state, those responsible would have been held accountable and citizens would have had the right to truly choose.

The "elections" are over, but the problems remain. We must not stop. Silence is not an option when we are faced with environmental crimes, state negligence, and a justice system that is more like a fan than a referee./ CNA