Albania Opposition Ends Hunger Strike
Socialist Party leader Edi Rama and Prime Minister Sali Berisha are expected to travel to Strasbourg on Thursday, where they will hold talks with EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele aimed at finding a compromise.
“On Thursday in Strasburg the highest representatives of the European left and right will host both parties in a roundtable to find a solution,” Rama told his supporters as he announced the end of the strike.
Rama, who is also Tirana’s mayor, and Berisha have been locked in a stalemate over the results of the June 28, 2009 parliamentary elections, which Berisha’s party narrowly won.
On May 1, two dozen Socialist MPs and 180 of their supporters went on hunger strike in a tent in front of the prime minister’s office, pushing for a recount of the parliamentary election ballots.
The Socialists have boycotted parliament since the new session began in September, claiming that the government’s alleged fraud was to blame for their electoral loss.
They have conditioned their full participation in parliament on a recount of the electoral ballots of the parliamentary poll.
Although declaring his openness to a parliamentary investigation of the election, Berisha has stubbornly rejected the possibility of a recount. He argues that the opposition has exhausted all legal options and that he cannot override the judicial process.
Despite mediation by Albanian President Bamir Topi and the Council of Europe, both sides remain firm in their position, while the stalemate is hindering the country’s progress toward European Union integration.
In a letter sent to both Rama and Berisha, leaked to local media on Wednesday, the EU parliament threatened to freeze Albania’s integration process if a solution to the crisis was not reached.
