Opinion
The border is not a court
The government's protest package is right to punish violence, but the register of suspects and exit bans without a court ruling need independent oversight.
By ANN Newsroom · Newsroom
October 28, 2026, 18:30 · Updated 18:43 · 2 min read
After more than two weeks of protests, with smashed windows at the Ministry of Education, blocked roads and online calls for violence against elected officials, the government had a duty to respond. On Wednesday, the Council of Ministers approved normative acts that raise fines to as much as 500,000 lek for people with covered faces at banned gatherings, create an electronic register of suspects and compensate damaged businesses.
Some of these measures make sense. Full compensation for businesses with turnover of up to 14 million lek answers people who had nothing to do with the clashes. Exempting journalists, as well as health and religious reasons, from the mask ban also shows that the drafters considered the risk of abuse.
But the package's most serious provision is another one: the Border Police may refuse to let people under investigation leave the country, “case by case,” even without a court ruling. Restricting the freedom of movement of a citizen who has not yet been charged should not depend on the judgment of a police office. Just as questionable is that such sensitive changes to the law on assemblies come through a normative act rather than after a debate in Parliament.
The opposition does not help clarity either. Sali Berisha claimed that none of the protesters beaten by police had committed any act of violence, while the anti-terror police referred 17 people to prosecutors for calls to violence and two others were arrested for setting a trash bin on fire and blocking Durrës Street. The OSCE ambassador, Michel Tarran, put it simply: violence has no place in a democracy, but the main problem is the lack of dialogue.
Our proposal: every exit ban should be approved by a court within 48 hours, as the package already provides for appeals against bans on gatherings; the register should be overseen by the Ombudsman, with a monthly public report; and Parliament should review the package as a law, with hearings for lawyers, students and the police. Public order carries more authority when it is itself subject to checks.
