Socialist Party

The US ambassador to Albania said his embassy had identified several known criminals among candidates standing in the June local elections.

By Alexis Papachelas

The main parties have announced their candidates for the biggest electoral prize that is up for grabs in June's polls - the mayoralty of the capital Tirana.

The left-wing ruling coalition which came to power at parliamentary elections in 2013 has named the current minister of welfare and former social activist Erion Veliaj as its candidate.

Opposition parties rounded on the government on Thursday, accusing it of lacking a strategy in its negotiations with lenders and simply hoping for the best.

Albanian police detained Frroku at his home in Tirana after parliament gave the nod to the second request from the General Prosecutor to arrest him, this time in connection with the murder of Albanian citizen in Brussels in 1999.

He is expected to appear in the High Court of Albania within 48 hours.

Nicolas Sarkozy's Union for Popular Movement (UMP) party proved to be the big winner at the second round of France's local elections.

Paris and Lyon, France's two biggest cities have been excluded from the vote on Sunday.

The lawyers for two Albanian MPs, Tom Doshi and Mark Frroku, who were arrested on Thursday on charges of faking testimonies, have filed briefs with Albania's Supreme Court seeking their immediate release.

The lawyers said the arraignment orders signed by General Prosecutor Adriatik Llala were illegal and out of line with the criminal procedural code.

Eighty of Albania's 140 legislators on Thursday voted to back a request from the general prosecutor for the arrest of MPs Tom Doshi and Marku Frroku.

The opposition centre-right Democratic Party boycotted the vote, calling the prosecutor's probe against Doshi and Frroku a farce.

France's right-wing parties, led by former president Nicolas Sarkozy, edged out the far-right National Front to take first place in local elections on Sunday, in a crucial test ahead of 2017 presidential elections.
      

The conservative party of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy came in the lead at the local elections in the country on Sunday.

The National Front party, led by Marina Le Pen, on the other hand, achieved a stable result with approximately a quarter of the votes. Some of the main positions of the nationalists in France involve anti-immigration and anti-EU proposals.