In Wednesday’s press conference the chairman of the Democratic Party (DP), Lulzim Basha said that according to his polls, the Democrats want him to lead the party for which former Prime Minister Sali Berisha has already entered the race.
He revealed that 95 percent of the party membership supports him and if he wanted he could gather full halls but avoided that not to offend the DP veteran leader, Sali Berisha.
Basha said that he does not need to meet with the party rank-and-file as Sali Berisha is doing. He even stressed that he is not doing this as he does not want Berisha to be placed in an inferior position.
“I’m not one to use such moments to race who has the longest motorcade, who fills the halls the most, because I know it’s an easy race for me and it’s not fair to anyone, not even to Mr. Berisha to put him in such an inferior position,” said Basha.
In addition, he stressed that this is not a race between him and Mr. Berisha because this situation is well known – the decision-making came after the US decision-making. “The best interest of the DP is not served by the division of the party for the interests of Basha or Berisha. This is the reason for restraint and I will continue to restrain myself,” said Basha. But he warned that he will not allow any meetings of the Assembly as supporters of Berisha are requiring. Basha has declared that he expelled Berisha from the DP parliamentary group because of the US Ambassador’s diktat something which has been blasted by many analysts and DP members. The rejection of the US decision to declare Berisha persona non grata by the US State Secretary has been considered as a violation of the DP’s sovereignty. Like never before in the meetings of Berisha in the frame of Foltore no US flags can be seen, something which happens for the first time while social networks are full of criticism against the US Ambassador, Yuri Kim.
In the meantime, Basha said that he is convinced that if April 25 had not been what the opposition calls an ‘election massacre’, the DP would have secured 94 mandates that could change the Constitution of Albania alone.
“Even if the election massacre of April 25 had not happened and the DP would have been where the Albanians wanted and wanted it to be in governing the country, I have no doubt that we would have the 94 votes needed to change the Constitution,” he said.
Commenting on the amendment on the vetting of politicians, Basha said that he aims to clean Albanian politics from the ‘sludge of society’.
“These cannot be seen as propaganda or repressive measures against one side or the other, it is in the interest of all Albanians that politics be cleansed of the sludge of transition,” he said, adding that he is ready to be the first to be vetted.
The former DP premier, Sali Berisha said in Foltore activity in Peshkopia, Dibra region, on Tuesday that four defeats of the DP in general and local elections weigh on Lulzim Basha. “You may not love Berisha and you are free to express your opinion, but can you trust in a man who goes from loss to loss? … Therefore, I invite our friends to think because we go from defeat to defeat in this way.” / Argumentum.al
