TIRANA, Jan. 10 – The opposition’s protests caused by Prime Minister Edi Rama’s appointment of a temporary chief prosecutor during December’s last parliamentary session are scheduled to resume on the afternoon of Jan. 27.
The goal that united the country’s main oppositional forces in protest in removing Rama from office and creating an “anti-mafia” government.
Rama’s reputation has increasingly been put into question since October, when former Minister of Interior Saimir Tahiri was placed under investigation for alleged ties with the Habilaj brothers – heads of an international marijuana trafficking criminal organization.
Head of the opposition Democratic Party Lulzim Basha met with the parliamentary group and the heads of the DP in other districts to organize protest rallies, which will take place in front of the prime minister’s office.
According to Basha, the reestablishment of the rule of law in the country is necessary to bring about change. In his public statement, he said that citizens can feel the lawlessness through the poverty they are experiencing in their everyday lives.
“Lawlessness begins by buying off votes and has led to an illegal parliament and an illegal prime minister,” Basha said.
Monika Kryemadhi, head of the Socialist Movement of Integration Party (SMI) – part of the united opposition – also held meetings with the directors of districts to discuss the continuation of the protests and coordinate with the DP’s protesters.
In her statement, Kryemadhi said the protests don’t concern only one individual or a parliamentary process but the Albanian people as a whole, and that the cooperation with the DP will turn into a political alliance font.
“The protest’s horizon is quite big and it will be organized in a multi-dimensional way. It will be one of the big protests, but it won’t be one that will begin and end. The end will be achieving the goal successfully. The clear objective of the long-term agenda is the removal of Edi Rama,” Kryemadhi said.
Both parties’ last protest in parliament turned violent in December, when opposition MP’s let off smoke bombs while the parliamentary session was taking place and protesters clashed with the police outside the parliament in an attempt to block the vote on the temporary chief prosecutor.
The opposition claims that Rama’s appointment of a temporary chief prosecutor by a simple parliamentary majority (easily achieved by Rama’s governing Socialist Party) is unconstitutional and an attempt to control the only organ that has the power to investigate the government’s alleged ties with criminal activities and corruption.
The government’s stand on the opposition’s protests
The governing Socialist Party spokesperson said that despite the noise the opposition wants to make and their efforts to transmit this noise in the ears of EU and other high officials, the SP’s agenda concerns Albania, and not daily political interests.
“This unfortunately is not the opposition’s rhetoric or politics. They have decided to place their current political interest above the national interest,” the spokesperson said.
