Sali Berisha

Albania's opposition Democratic Party will end its boycott of parliament on Friday, but faces serious questions over how it will handle a decision by party leader Lulzim Basha to remove his predecessor and mentor, Sali Berisha, from its parliamentary caucus.

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.

US President Joe Biden speaks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, June 2, 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/Samuel Corum/POOL

Activist Mayor?

Zagreb's Ban Jelacic square. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANTONIO BAT.

With days to go before the key second round of local elections in Croatia, all eyes are turned to the capital, Zagreb, where leftist candidate Tomislav Tomasevic is poised to take the mayorship of the city. His main rival is popular singer and now right-wing politician Miroslav Skoro.

"With this designation, I am reaffirming the need for accountability and transparency in Albania's democratic institutions, government processes, and the actions of Albanian public officials," Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote in the press release.

After the news that the US has barred former Democratic Party leader and Albanian President and PM Sali Berisha, experts told BIRN that his opposition centre-right party might benefit from this decision in the long run.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has officially denied a request for entry in to the US by former Albanian president Sali Berisha.

"Today, I am announcing the public designation of Sali Berisha, former President, Prime Minister and Member of Parliament of Albania, due to his involvement in significant corruption," Blinken said in a statement. 

Former Albanian prime minister Sali Berisha. Photo: LSA

Berisha is the fourth Albanian to be added to the list of people unwelcome in the US after former General Prosecutor Adriatik Llalla, former Socialist Party mayor Vangjush Dako and the current Social Democratic Party head, Tom Doshi.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama appears to be promoting Turkey as the country's main ally and benefactor and has been criticized for that.

Ramahas promised that a hospital will be built, with Turkish money, and will be ready by the April 25 election.

A local dispute has turned into became a much larger inter-ethnic row after unknown perpetrators removed a wooden cross from the foundations of St. Vasilije Ostroski church in the village of Martinaj and threw it into a nearby stream.