Foreign ministers of Albania

The Special Prosecution said on Tuesday that the mayor of the western city of Lushnja, Fatos Tushe, a member of the ruling Socialist Party, has been arrested alongside five other senior officials on graft charges.

They are accused of abuse of office and "violating the equality of participants in public tenders or auctions", the prosecution said.

The International Monitoring Operation, created to oversee a vetting process in Albania launched under EU and US pressure in 2017, issued a decision saying Tirana chief prosecutor Elizabeta Imeraj "has significantly jeopardised public trust in the judicial system" and should be removed from the post.

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.

Albanian MPs on Wednesday voted to oust the country's president, Ilir Meta, though the final decision on the issue must go to the Constitutional Court, which will conclude if Meta will be removed from office before his term ends in until 2022.

Some 104 lawmakers in the ruling Socialist-dominated chamber voted for dismissal while seven voted against. Three abstained.

The video was a crude example of a 'deep fake', a video that portrays someone saying something they didn't. And it was not the only political attack ad run by Untold Stories of Albania and targeting Basha and other opposition leaders before the April 25 vote that was won by the ruling Socialist of Prime Minister Edi Rama.

"It is scandalous that the German minister publicly accuses the Balkans and thus humiliates people of migrant origin," Edi Rama told the German "Bild".

"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.

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.

After Lulzim Basha's second defeat by the Socialists in general elections, both Basha and the Democratic Party face big questions over their strategy of protests and boycotts.

Albania's parliament on Friday voted to set up a commission to examine the possible ousting of the country's President, Ilir Meta.

It came after a.group of ruling Socialist deputies requested his dismissal, accusing him of interfering in the April 25 legislative elections in violation of the constitution.