TIRANA, Nov. 3 – The main opposition Democratic Party leader, Lulzim Basha, made calls this week for nation-wide anti-government protests, saying the left-wing government of Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama was plunging the country into a deep economic crisis. He also directly accused the prime minister of corruption.
Basha made the comments in the northeastern Kukes County, the only region to vote overwhelmingly for the center-right two years ago.
Basha said that Albanians should not wait until the next elections in two years, but should stand up and launch “here from Kukes the popular spirit of change.”
“Let’s stand up and inspire through acts of disobedience and opposition to open a new road for Albania,” Basha said while meeting with his supporters there.
He said that the government was deepening the economic crisis engulfing the country and added that a government which aimed to serve only its ministers should be taken down with “any democratic means” available.
Basha pledged the Democrats would immediately lower taxes, the price of energy and pardon accumulated interests on power bills if they were to return to power.
There was an immediate reaction from the governing Socialists. A Socialist lawmaker, Alfred Peza, attacked what it said was Basha’s campaign against payment of power bills. He said the Democrats had not pardoned interests while they were in power but instead left behind a huge debt in state coffers.
“Basha is the man no one believes; he is the symbol of anti-rule-of-law,” said Peza in a press conference.
The next scheduled elections are set for 2017, but the opposition has focused on the economic crisis and the alleged corruption to attack the government.
