TIRANA, March 28 – The Socialist Movement for Integration (SMI) saw an unexpected decline in party members this week, when seven SMI public office holders resigned to join the governing Socialist Party (SP).
The first to resign through a public statement were two SMI counselors for the Korà§a Municipality, Marilena Dervishi and Shkelqim Larti, followed by four other members including the head of the Devoll Municipal Council Albert Lilo and member of the Kukes Municipal Council Zarie Visha.
Larti, who was one of the first to resign, said he’d found himself between two choices – continuing to contribute to the country’s transformation or adhering to SMI’s political orders.
“Today I decided not to abandon what I have done so far and to join the Socialist Party, leaving behind methods of ‘blocking’ orders coming from Tirana,” Larti said.
Head of the SMI Monika Kryemadhi commented on the resignations as ‘old news’ and said SMI members are free to be part of any political affiliation they want.
“SMI members are free to be anywhere they wish, but I know the reality we live in will not be changed either by MPs or counselors. What’s important is that we change in giving people more jobs, more wellbeing and more prosperity,” Kryemadhi told local media.
Former Minister for Agriculture Edmond Panariti, member of the SMI, also commented on the divide, calling the resignees a “mish-mash of mercenaries in Rebirth’s (SP) rusty tray” , and referring to Lilo, head of the Devoll Municipal Council, as the “following purchase pressured by a job offer, thinking to protect himself from the Russian danger of the opposition.”
The Devoll municipality members who resigned, however, justified joining the SP by calling the SMI-Democratic Party (DP) coalition ‘anti-Western’.
“The anti-Western SMI-DP coalition has now turned to an anti-Albanian coalition,” the resignees told local media.
Visha, from the Kukes district, also said the SMI has lost its European integration direction by blocking this vital process with the opposition’s DP, thus “keeping Albania’s european future hostage” and called on all SMI members to leave this political party which, according to her, is destroying the following generations’ future.
These relocations of party members follows a tradition of similar actions in the past in Fier, Vlore, Gjirokaster, Elbasan, Skrapar and Kurbin. With local elections a mere year away, analysts have said the most common method for local MPs and counselors to ensure seats is by changing loyalties with the governing SP.
