
MP Marjana Koçeku surprised many yesterday by declaring that she will no longer be part of the Socialist Party.
Koçeku said that she will now be an independent MP.
Her decision has sparked enthusiasm among protesters, who believe that she has distanced herself from the Socialist Party, precisely because of their protests.
The Socialists, meanwhile, have been disappointed and many of them are asking her to hand over her MP mandate to the SP, given that Koçek became an MP as part of the closed list.
So, she has a "gift" in a way from the SP, the mandate of MP.
Student Helena Kaçe, who was recently described by Edi Rama as his successor in the party, writes:
"There is a kind of hypocrisy and ingratitude in politics. To enter Parliament through closed lists, with the votes and commitment of a party, and then to remember that 'ideals and moral boundaries' push you to emerge independent. True independence does not begin by handing over the card and holding the chair.
Start by handing over your mandate. Because those votes that brought you to Parliament were from people who voted for a political logo and vision. If your ideals no longer coincide with that political house, the most principled step is to return your mandate to those who trusted you. Good luck on your new journey Marjana as an independent, you did the right thing: Hand over your mandate!”
Meanwhile, the socialist member of the Tirana Municipal Council, Alfred Muharremi, writes that if an MP no longer represents the political force with which he was elected, then he must surrender his mandate, emphasizing that the mandate is not personal property, but trust given by voters and the party.
"I appreciate Ms. Koçeku's decision to join a cause that she has chosen to call her own today. However, it is difficult not to notice that all those causes that she passionately reveals today were there yesterday, the day before yesterday, and even the day when she agreed to become part of the Socialist Party of Albania as a safe MP in one of the most difficult political areas of the SP.
When the causes required a parliamentary battle, she had and still has a mandate, a voice, a card and a microphone. Today, after having enjoyed the privileges of representation, she chooses to leave, acting as if she had just discovered reality. If she believes that she no longer represents the Socialist Party, then the political act does not end with the surrender of the card (which I do not know if she has) but with the surrender of the mandate.
"The mandate is not a personal suitcase that is taken with you every time you change your destination or the thoughts of your political adolescence. It is trust given by a community, by a team and by a political force like Shkodra, where the socialists there have fought for it to be in the Assembly. So dear Marian, good luck, but hand over the mandate! The others will then fly like flamingos. Some towards the horizon, some towards the cameras. Time will tell where they will land," he writes.
So far, there has been no additional reaction from Koçek, neither on the reasons that led him to leave the SP, nor on whether he will hand over his mandate or not. (Vox News)