Lulzim Basha

Less than two months after his party lost the general elections on 25 April for the third time to the Socialist Party, Lulzim Basha won internal leadership elections, confirming his grip on the party for the next four years.

After a short visit to serious crime prosecutors, Rizzatto left Albania the same day, mission accomplished:

Within the year, money-laundering charges against Vladi and four others had been dropped, as one of Albania's most sensational criminal cases of recent years unraveled.

The leader of Albania's opposition Democratic Party, Lulzim Basha, has been ordered to appear before prosecutors on Monday to answer questions in a case related to payments that his party made to US lobbying firm Muzin Capitol Partners that were not declared in Albania.

Two other members of the Democratic Party, Arben Ristani and Ilir Dervishi, have also been summoned.

Albanian opposition protesters using firecrackers against police on June 2. Photo: Gjergj Erebara/BIRN

At their seventh large protest, the opposition parties again called for the removal of Prime Minister Edi Rama and his Socialist-led government.

Protesters push through police in Tirana on 28 March 2019. Photo: Gjergj Erebara/BIRN

The main opposition centre-right Democratic Party mustered its supporters at two points on the main pedestrian avenue and some of them attempted in vain to push through a police cordon near the entrance of the parliament.

The General Prosecutor's Office in Tirana told BIRN on Friday it would probe allegations that a company had used false documents to win an 18-million-euro public works tender in Albania.

 The Albanian-registered company allegedly pretended to be a branch of a major US-based contractor to get the contract.

It was expected to be an eventful political season when Albania's parliament reopened earlier this month, with an agenda of reforms needed to open the way for the start of EU membership negotiations next June.

After the Council of Europe postponed a decision on this issue last June, reforms that need cross-party agreement, such as electoral reform, have become a matter of urgency.

Albania's two main opposition parties announced on Monday that they intend to bring down Edi Rama's centre-left government through united protests.

The Albanian parliament was blanketed in pink smoke on Monday as the ruling majority voted for the appointment of the new temporary prosecutor general, after opposition MPs set off smoke bombs in an attempt to stop the move, claiming it was unconstitutional.

The head of the secret service in Albania, SHISH, Visho Ajazi Lika, has resigned from his position to which he was appointed in August 2012.

The news emerged on Monday after Prime Minister Edi Rama's office said Rama had named SHISH vice director Helidon Bendo to President Ilir Meta as Ajazi's successor.