TIRANA, Feb. 22 – In a visit to Tirana, Knut Fleckenstein, the European Parliament’s standing rapporteur on Albania, urged opposition lawmakers to return to parliament, which, he said, is the only proper revenue to address any grievances and to contribute to the country’s EU integration processes.
Albania’s main opposition Democratic Party has said it will boycott parliament and hold indefinite protests until Prime Minister Edi Rama resigns and a caretaker government guarantees free and fair elections.
Fleckenstein said he would not be part of any negotiations to end the political stalemate.
“The place of every political party is in parliament. All of their work and negotiations must be done in parliament,” Fleckenstein said.
On Tuesday, MEP Fleckenstein met with Prime Minister Edi Rama and Parliament Speaker Ilir Meta. He also met with the chairman of Democratic Party Lulzim Basha.
Fleckenstein also held a meeting with U.S. Ambassador Donald Lu and EU Ambassador Romana Vlahutin. The three foreign representatives talked about the judiciary reform, decriminalization and elections.
“Mr. Basha must allow his MPs to go back to parliament and do their job,” Fleckenstein said in a televised interview before the meeting with Basha.
The opposition leader has repeatedly called for the establishment of a caretaker government that would guarantee free and fair elections and underlined that the opposition would not accept any offer regarding partial solution.
“We will not back down. We are determined to go through toward our goal of having free and fair elections, ousting the prime minister and establishing a caretaker government,” Basha said. “When every institution in the country has gone down, it is time for the government to fall.”
He added the “opposition would return to parliament when a government will be able to guarantee free elections.”
The Socialist ruling majority believes that the opposition’s anti government protest is in fact “an alibi to justify the next electoral loss” and “an attempt to inhibit the justice reform vetting process,” according to Prime Minister Rama.
The prime minister said Tuesday, “Let them continue with their protest and boycott, but they should sent the three nominations to the commissions that will save our judiciary from those killers dressed in black.”
