Albania Parties Reach Agreement to End Opposition Protests

Opposition MP Gazmend Bardhi confirmed to BIRN that an agreement had been reached with the ruling Socialists that will enable them to return to normal work in the country's parliament.

Albania Parliament on 13 September 2021. Photo: LSA

After around five months when the main opposition group has been absent from Albania’s parliament, an agreement has been reached between the parties that returns the opposition to parliament, opposition MP Gazmend Bardhi confirmed to BIRN.

“As long as the [ruling] majority … restores parliamentary life on the tracks of the constitution, we will return to the normal work of the assembly,” Bardhi told BIRN.

He added that two investigative committeess were also agreed.

“We agreed on two investigation commissions, which were the starting point of the opposition action in the assembly, which we developed for more than five months. We were not interested in a non-functional assembly, but [it was] a forced path that was directly related to the fundamental rights of the opposition, such as the instruments of parliamentary control,” Bardhi told BIRN.

Initially, the opposition had asked for eight parliamentary investigative commissions, which were dismissed by the ruling Socialists. This dismissal was the starting point of the opposition protests that have continued since October last year.

Opposition MPs have set off flares in parliament and attempted to physically stop the legislature from functioning. The Socialists meanwhile started to hold online meetings to avoid physical clashes and ordered guards to block protesting opposition MPs from plenary sessions.

Albania’s opposition is divided into two major groups, a larger one led by former prime minister and former president Sali Berisha, known as the Refoundation Democratic Party, and a smaller one, the official Democratic Party. The MPs that have been part of the negotiations with Edi Rama’s ruling Socialists belong to Berisha’s group.