Albanian opposition parties on Wednesday formed what they called a united front against the government, demanding the removal from office of Prime Minister Edi Rama, accusing him of collaborating with organized crime and traffickers.
The main opposition parties, Democratic Party (DP) headed by Lulzim Basha, and the Socialist Movement for Integration (SMI) headed by Monika Kryemadhi, held a meeting Wednesday with other small parties not part of government.
According to opposition parties, Rama is allegedly responsible of having connections with organized crime and masterminding vote rigging and intimidation of voters.
Such strong reaction comes after an alleged wire-tapping scandal was made public by Italian media, according to which, the Albanian former minister of interior Sajmir Tahiri had ties with a group of criminals involved in drugs and weapons trafficking.
Tahiri denied such allegations in a press statement on Tuesday, saying he was open to investigation.
Tahiri served as interior minister from 2013 to 2017 while now he has another post as a national coordinator for co-governance with citizens.
Opposition parties on Wednesday demanded the Albanian prosecutor general to investigate and bring to justice all persons involved in drugs and weapons trafficking.
Likewise, they demanded from the Prosecutor-General to investigate other government ministers involved in trafficking and their collaboration with the world of crime in bargaining of the June 25 vote.
Meanwhile, following the opposition parties’ statement, Rama reacted by saying that the current government was set to transform justice system and bring justice for everyone.
According to him, what the opposition parties are trying to do is to block the justice reform and throw mud against everyone. However, in the case of Tahiri, Rama said that he encouraged the justice bodies to act correctly and shed light on the truth.
