The opposition yesterday held a large protest on the main boulevard, in front of the Prime Ministry in Tirana. Although several embassies had warned for possible acts of violence, the protest was held peacefully.
Although the opposition claimed that 600,000 people had attended, media related to government have provided lower estimates.
During the protest, PD leader Lulzim Basha spoke of the protest as a “referendum” for the “New Republic”:
We are with three times more, more than 600,000 Albanians and millions of others in this historical referendum. We have gathered for the greatest change in 27 years of history. Everything should change and thanks to our unity, your resistance, with your help everything will change. Nothing will be as before. Today the old republic is declared an object in the archive of the National Historical Museum. We united Albanians do not accept, do not acknowledge, and will no longer acknowledge the old republic of crime and drugs.
Although preparations for the elections on June 18 have proceeded in a steady pace, the Socialist Party has officially started their electoral campaign, and the EU has reluctantly approved of the elections, Basha insisted that there will be no elections without the opposition:
There cannot be monist elections in Albania. We will not allow it and never accept it. The old republic and everyone that stands behind it have to forget elections without the opposition.
