RBA holds anti-government rally

TIRANA, April 7 – A few thousand supporters of a growing Albanian nationalist political party on Sunday held an anti-government protest, some two months before the June parliamentary elections.
Supporters of the Red-and-Black Alliance Party, or AK, founded a year ago, gathered first at the Tirana main Skanderbeg Square to march in front of Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s office holding flags and challenging pouring rain.
AK leader Kreshnik Spahiu says the party aims to prosecute and send Prime Minister Sali Berisha to prison for corruption and “selling Albania’s national interest.” The party is expected to be a key contestant in the June 23 polls.
AK has been the strongest nationalist movement Albania has seen since the fall of Communism, and it is vying to become the country’s third largest party. Its rise has challenged Albania’s role as moderate country in the volatile region.
Sunday’s rally was peaceful and the organizers said they had planned another one for May 1.
Spahiu had claimed that the protest organized by the alliance would bring down Berisha’s government. The party is known for calling for the unification of Albanian lands in the Balkans, but its position has wavered depending on the political climate in recent months. They have also handed over a request at the Central Election Commission on holding a referendum on a union between Albania and Kosovo.
Spahiu said that in a week AK will decide whether it will join the opposition coalition led by the Socialist Party or smaller political parties like the New Democratic Spirit of former President Bamir Topi. It might also simply run alone.
Socialist leader Edi Rama made an open call to Spahiu and his party to join the Socialists’ coalition, adding that unless they did that they would be considered as supporting Berisha. He hinted that there have been cases in the world history where the governing political party creates extremist groupings which, though allegedly oppose the government, in in fact are designed to attract voters away from the opposition coalition.
There is still time for a few weeks until the political groupings in the country have to formally register coalitions at the Central Election Commission.