US Embassy hosts Ambassador Eric Wendt! 130 guests at the welcome reception — here is who was missing

Under tight security measures at a hotel in the former Blloku area, the American Embassy held the welcome reception for Ambassador Eric Wendt.

Top Channel journalist Muhamed Veliu reports that around 130 people were invited, among them the President of the Republic, Bajram Begaj. The guests were not only politicians from both sides, but also other Albanian state officials, ministers, heads of justice bodies, figures from other fields, as well as those considered friends of the American Embassy in Tirana.

As he himself had warned a few days earlier, there was no invitation to this reception for the DP leader, Sali Berisha. But Gazment Bardhi, head of the DP parliamentary group, was filmed entering the reception, together with fellow MPs Oerd Bylykbashi, Jorida Tabaku and Belind Këlliçi.

Taulant Balla, head of the Socialist parliamentary group, had also received an invitation and attended.

Also invited were former Speaker of Parliament Elisa Spiropali, together with Bledi Çuçi, Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Internal Affairs and Defense. After them arrived Foreign Minister Ferit Hoxha, who was one of the first office-holders to meet Wendt after his arrival in Tirana a few days earlier.

As the minutes passed, well-known figures from public institutions continued to arrive at the meeting. Also arriving were Energy and Infrastructure Minister Enea Karakaçi, Culture Minister Blendi Gonxhe, Justice Minister Toni Gogu and Culture Minister Mirela Kumbaro.

There were also guests from the religious communities, with the World Grandfather of the Bektashis, Baba Mondi, arriving a few minutes earlier.

Part of the ceremony were also chief police officer Skender Hita and the former number one of SPAK, prosecutor Altin Dumani, who, at the proposal of the American Embassy in Tirana, was decorated by the State Department at a ceremony in the USA.

From the small opposition parties, the representative was Agron Shehaj, leader of “Mundësia.”