After a meeting between Prime Minister Edi Rama and Speaker of Parliament Ilir Meta, coalition partners PS and LSI today decided to seek the intervention of the European People’s Party (EPP) to solve the political crisis in the country.
Opposition party PD is affiliated with the EPP.
LSI leader Meta declared that the government coalition will not propose a presidential candidate without the consensus of the opposition. Even though they have a majority of 90 seats in Parliament, Meta stated that no new president will be elected without the presence of the opposition.
The first round for the election of the next president will be held on April 19, while the opposition continues to boycott Parliament.
PD leader Lulzim Basha responded directly to the proposal for the EPP to intervene:
The EPP has no role here, solve your own business. Leave this demagogy and solve your business with the socialists. We are open to dialogue. This dialogue has one objective: caretaker government and its mandate for free and fair elections.
Basha is not in a state of distrust, Basha is in a state of trust. You are the ones in a state of ditrust, that you are an incriminated government, from the Prime Minister to the ministers. We have only one way: to sit down and discuss about a technical government and there is no other way.
