“One can no longer stay in this Parliament!” — Berisha warns of a boycott? Balla advises him: I hope you do not take that decision

After four hours of debate, this was the result of the in-principle vote in the Law Commission on the Socialists’ variant of the bill “On the administrative-territorial division of local government units in the Republic of Albania”, whose essence is the reduction of the total number of municipalities from 61 to 46.

With only the 8 votes in favour of the Socialists, the bill passes for a vote to the plenary session of 8 October. All five Democratic members of this commission voted against.

Opposition leader Sali Berisha invited citizens to take part in Thursday’s protest against this reform. He did not use the plenary session dedicated to citizens’ problems to bring their voice.

He dwelt at length on what he called “the Socialists’ lack of interest in speaking about an issue of national interest, as he assessed the developments with the former director of SHISH, Vlora Hyseni. He issued strong accusations about how Parliament is functioning.

“But the problem is that you protect your own there. That is why one can no longer stay here in Parliament. This parliament has no moral right to exist. This parliament is the spokesman of Europe’s most savage mafia groups,” Berisha said.

This stance by Berisha was interpreted by the head of the SP parliamentary group, Taulant Balla, as a possible boycott of parliamentary life by the opposition.

“Do not repeat the scenarios of 2019, I hope it does not happen. It is never a coincidence that, from Rambouillet until today, whenever Kosovo has troubles and needs Albania, Saliu calls for an attack against Albania’s democratic institutions,” Balla said.

Like the previous sessions of Parliament, this Monday’s was also accompanied by a protest, with participants being those who continue the protest every evening in front of the Prime Minister’s Office.