TIRANA, Sept. 10 – As Albania’s new Parliament convened in its first session Friday, much of the focus was on the main opposition party, where internal strife between the current leader, Lulzim Basha, and the former leader, Sali Berisha, risks tearing the party apart.
The rift comes after Basha’s decision to expel Berisha from the parliamentary group following continued U.S. pressure after Berisha’s designation on corruption by the U.S. State Department.
The decision has been met with fury by Berisha and his supporters as well as given ammunition to growing voices of dissent and Basha rivals inside the DP. Several high profile DP MPs and former ministers have spoken out against the decision, some calling for Basha’s resignation, while many of the current party leadership have chosen to stay silent.
Speaking to the media following the first parliamentary session, which Berisha attended sitting in the back DP rows, Berisha vowed to fight Basha’s decision.
“What happened is a [Prime Minister Edi] Rama-Basha agreement at the expense of the Albanian voters and should be immediately voided,” Berisha said. “It’s out of any kind of discussion, I am a member of the DP group.”
Basha has not directly answered the accusations against him, preferring to focus on attacks on Prime Minister Rama who he said leads “a regime resulting from illegal elections which the DP does not recognize.”
The U.S. Embassy issued a statement of support for DP following Basha’s decision to distance from Berisha.
“The difficult decision announced yesterday by Chairman Lulzim Basha deserves respect. This decision demonstrates that — as was the case 30 years ago and at other critical moments in Albania’s history — the Democratic Party has the courage to break from the past in order to build the future, to help lead Albania forward,” the statement noted. “The United States has had a special relationship with the Democratic Party from its founding, and we look forward to working more closely than ever with Chairman Basha and the Democratic Party to strengthen the U.S.-Albanian relations.”
