By Argumentum
The opposition Democratic Party (DP) and its militants are the only ones who have the power and experience and the DP is bigger than the mistakes, has said the current chairman of this party, Lulzim Basha.
Speaking to DP militants in Berat, southern Albania, on Tuesday where the opposition got a heavy blow in the April 25 election which he lost disastorly leaving in power the Socialist Party (SP) for the third time since 2013, Basha pledged that they would take the battle for change to the end.
Basha did not say when the end of his political adversaries’ will be as PM Edi Rama has assured Albanians that he will rule this Balkan country until 2030. The more so it has been immediate and strong the support of the US and some other internationals even though CEC, the electoral monitoring authority, had not given the verdict.
The DP will hold election of its chairman and leadership in an atmosphere of harsh criticism against current head Basha by large groups of party circles for the third consecutive loss in parliamentary election. Three candidates are challenging Basha for the chair but it is not clear which group is supported by veteran figure Sali Berisha who is in trouble as the US State Secretary, Blinken decided last week not to allow him and his family to enter US.
Four senior Albanian politicians are on the list of non- grata persons to US.
In the meantime Washington’s Ambassador to Albania Yuri Kim is in the worst ever relationship with President Ilir Meta because the latter has found faults with the last election and has criticized PM Edi Rama of turning Albania into an autocratic regime. Ambassador Kim doesn’t agree as she applauded April 25 general poll in this Balkan country.
Apparently even DP head Basha was on the same wavelength and he was seemingly pleased that Democrats continue to be in opposition.
“We are aware that not only in Berat but throughout Albania, we stood strong. You stood with the greatest courage on a battlefield where he (Edi Rama) came with the criminals and the money of the oligarchs and we went with honesty, with program, with ideas, with vision and with an open heart to the people.” This is what Basha told his militants.
But, anyway, it’s hard to understand what Basha declared in Berat as following: “Instead of becoming weaker and fewer in numbers, in a situation when for the first time since 1991 we had no power and went to as equals to citizens with him (Edi Rama), despite all the machinations, we came out stronger, bigger, more united on April 25.”
PM Edi Rama will rule having a 74- member majority of SP starting in September 2021 in the third consecutive mandate. This is the balance sheet of Lulzim Basha of which he is proud of! /argumentum.al