Editorial: Buying influence outside, forgoing interest at home: The ‘criminal’ expenditure on lobbies

This week Albanian media, quoting an American website, reported that the Socialist Party has acquired the lobbying services of a company closely tied to the Trump presidential campaign, ‘Ballards Partners’ based in Florida. It is the third time within these four first months of 2017 that such a lobbying contract is made. Previously both the Socialist Movement for Integration and the Democratic Party had done similar contracts with US firms. The latter is reported to have as much as three different lobbying companies trying to service ties with the new US administration. The sums involved are considerable: the SP will…