Blushi: Church cannot impose ambassadors

09/02/2015 00:00

The Foreign Commission focused almost entirely on the name of Visar
Zhiti, as candidate for Ambassador to Vatican, although there were three
candidates in the hearing session.

The Albanian press wrote about a opposition stance from the Catholic church. An official of the Episcopal Conference declared that Visar Zhiti is not catholic, and Albania should need a Catholic representative in Vatican. Same as the President, the Conference official says that the government didn’t consult the church first.

This stance, which was done for the first time in 25 years, took a strong reaction from the Socialist MP, Ben Blushi. He said that Visar Zhiti, besides the merit of being an ambassador, has another mission.

“To defend the secular government, which I think is our first duty today, we do not have Constitutional criteria for appointing someone based on his religion. No one can impose this to us. Not even the church, which has intervened in a discussion out of their competences”, Blushi declared.

Almost all Socialist MPs of this Commission have supported the declaration of Blushi, despite the maximal support he has given to Visar Zhiti as the best candidacy ever coming from the Foreign Ministry.

The Democratic Party representatives were surprised with this, keeping in mind the President’s reaction on this case. Jozefina Topalli, who came for the first time at this Commission, was also the first one to declared that she agreed with Zhiti and with the presentation that the Foreign Ministry had done about him.

“Mr.Zhiti is a treasure of our nation. More than an ambassador in Vatican, we are approving together an Albanian apostle”, Topalli declared.

The MPs who were in favor of Mr.Zhiti didn’t mention the fact that the President was against his name. Ben Blushi was once again more clear about this.

“Unfortunately, the President became part of this debate that is not his. He prejudged Mr.Visar Zhiti, maybe for another reason. It is the time to ask the opposition and majority colleagues to influence the President for overcoming this”, Blushi declared.

Despite being in favor of Zhiti, the Democrats avoided the President’s stance that he would not decree any ambassador if the government has not consulted his name with him first. Jozefina Topalli declared that President Nishani is right, but added that he should make an exception for Zhiti.

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