TIRANA, Sept. 9 – The leader of Albania’s main opposition Democratic Party, Lulzim Basha, announced Thursday that the party’s historic leader, Sali Berisha, could not be part of DP’s Parliamentary Group when parliament held its first session on Friday, pending a judicial clearing on corruption allegations that saw Berisha blacklisted by the U.S. State Department
In a short televised speech, Basha said the decision was a difficult one, nevertheless one that needed to be taken in order to further the interests of the Albanian people and the Democratic Party.
Berisha responded by saying the decision was not properly taken by the party and was thus “null and void” while also marking the end of sovereignty of the Democratic Party. He said he still considered himself part of the DP group.
The former prime minister added would have been better for Basha to resign rather than agree to expel him from the parliamentary group. In a live-call with a popular news show, Berisha further clarified that he will do anything in his power to restore the sovereignty of the Democratic Party by any means necessary.
Various analysts noted that any action pursued by Berisha will either lead to a schism within the Democratic Party or lead to the creation of a new
political party headed by Berisha.
Edit Harxhi, a prominent member of the Democratic Party stated on live television that Basha’s decision was taken in contravention to the statute of the Democratic Party, given that the general assembly was not gathered to approve such a decision.
The statute of the Democratic party does not contain a provision enabling the chairman of the party to expel one of the members of the parliamentary group due to their being banned from entry in a foreign country. Although questions remained as to Basha’s stance on whether Berisha would be expelled from the DP’s parliamentary group, as per the request of the U.S. Ambassador, sources within the DP had confirmed in recent days that such a decision to expel Berisha seemed extremely unlikely.
Berisha too seemed to implicitly confirm this version of events, but stated that several sources had informed him of the fact that lately Basha was under immense pressure and had been threatened and coerced by the U.S. Embassy into taking such a decision.
