TIRANA, Jan.19 – Several Albanian politicians have traveled to Washington this week to attend events tied to the inauguration of Donald Trump’s as the 45th President of the United States.
Parliament Speaker Ilir Meta, Opposition Leader Lulzim Basha, Minister Blendi Klosi, Socialist Party lawmaker Ervin Bushati will be in Washington for the affair. Albanian Ambassador Floreta Faber will be the official representative of Albania at the event, according to U.S. officials.
Basha, leader of Albania’s center-right opposition, is using the trip to meet with several Republican officials.
“I will go to the United States of America to attend the inauguration of President Donald Trump with an invitation of the National Republican Committee and the majority in the U.S. Senate,” Democratic Party chairman Basha said in a Facebook post.
Several media outlets reported that tickets to the inauguration of U.S President elect Donald Trump cost 500 USD each and even hinted that some politicians had ‘bought’ themselves an invitation.
Furthermore, a news report by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network revealed that the Socialist Movement for Integration has agreed to pay U.S. lobbyists McKeon Group 15,000 US dollars per month for six months to obtain invitations for LSI leaders to attend the inauguration and organize meetings with other political leaders during the visit.
McKeon Group based in Washington is led by former Republican Congressman Howard P “Buck” McKeon.
In a televised interview, Speaker Meta was asked to comment the news story and he said that “he does not pay attention to Soros Media.”
“I do not want to deal with media owned by or close to Soros. Socialist Movement for Integration is a very transparent political party that abides to Albanian laws first and then U.S. and European laws. Everyone who is interested can investigate the matter further,” he said.
According to BIRN reports, the Socialist Movement for Integration has spent 123,761 US dollars in the first six months of 2016 for the lobbying services of Global Security and Innovative Strategies which facilitated SMI meetings with high level officials and members of Congress.
Meanwhile, Blendi Klosi and Ervin Bushati are the only representatives of the Socialist Party to attend the inauguration ceremony. Prime Minister Edi Rama who is in an official visit to Singapore will not attend the ceremony.
Last year, Albanian Prime Minister made bitter public statements about the then U.S. Presidential republican candidate Donald Trump.
“I pray to God so that the American people would not elect him as president. Because if this were to happen, it would cause a great harm to the United States and it would be a serious threat to the US-Albanian relations,” he said.
