Prime Minister Edi Rama speaking in parliament on Thursday. (Photo: PDP)
TIRANA, March 2, 2023 – Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama told parliament on Thursday that the U.S. charges on a former senior FBI official, Charles McGonigal, do not implicate him or the Albanian government in any wrongdoing.
Mr. Rama faced parliament after weeks of opposition demands that there be a question and answer session on the matter, but the prime minister left parliament at the end of his speech on the matter, refusing to answer questions.
The former FBI official, McGonigal, is accused, among other things, of not appropriately reporting contacts and connections with Albanian officials, including meetings with Mr. Rama, and that he received undeclared cash from an Albanian-American man with ties to Albanian officials. Mr. Rama has not denied the meetings took place, but maintains there was nothing inappropriate about them.
While speaking at length using colorful language at the parliamentary session on Thursday, Rama did not give explanations on details like the involvement of his former adviser Dorian Ducka and Albanian-American Agron Neza in the affair.
Mr. Rama did, however, speak about his name appearing many times in the indictment of the FBI official.
“In these 14 such famous times of repeating my name day and night for two months, the indictment says nothing, zero, neither about me, nor about the Albanian government or anyone else that the person in question has met, nor about the Albanian state,” Rama said.
Albanian opposition representatives present another story altogether, however.
Enkelejd Alibeaj, an opposition MP who requested the question and answer session, said Mr. Rama’s goal had been to hurt the Albanian opposition Democratic Party.
“The people involved had three goals. Prime Minister Edi Rama intended to initiate a criminal case against the American lobbyist engaged by the DP, which would then serve to initiate a criminal investigation by the Albanian authorities,” Alibeaj said. “For Agron Neza and Dorian Ducka, the goal was simple: the benefit of concessionary licenses in the oil sector. For agent McGonigal, the benefit of at least 225,000 dollars and other benefits from businesses in Albania. And all these goals, for each one, were realized through illegal means.”
In the same line of accusations, DP PM Luciano Boci accused the prime minister of having “corrupted a former FBI official” in order to “hit and eliminate the opposition and the political system in Albania.”
Former Prime Minister Sali Berisha said an investigative commission should be set up in parliament and the ruling Socialists were unconstitutionally blocking it. He added he had 13 questions prepared for the prime minister who had refused to answer any.
“There are 13 [questions], but there should be 130, to which the parliamentary investigative commission should provide answers. Without answering these questions, Albania will have chaos and only chaos,” Mr. Berisha said.
