FLASH
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The Parliament of Albania started the new parliamentary session on Monday with an unprecedented legal situation. The reason was a letter sent by Lulzim Basha as the chairman of the Democratic Party, appointing himself chairman of the parliamentary group of this party.
The Speaker of the Assembly, Lindita Nikolla, read it as an announcement for the plenary session, but after the opposition of the opposition MPs and the current chairman of the group, Gazmend Bardhi, she accepted the unclear legal situation and passed the letter for decision-making to the legal department of the parliament.
Bardhi accused Nikolla of violating the regulation and provoking the opposition, by deciding who would be the chairman of the parliamentary group of the Democratic Party.
"It has never happened in this parliament that announcements of political parties are read," Bardhi said, adding that it is the deputies who choose the group's chairman.
Objections came from other PD deputies, who initially welcomed the announcement about Basha with applause.
Nikola accused the opposition MPs of "dragging the Assembly into an unprecedented situation".
"I am not here to clarify, it is assumed that it is based on the regulation of the Assembly," she commented on the DP announcement, but added that she has asked the legal department to give opinions on the basis of the regulation.
The letter read by Nikolla was based on a party decision of the PD leadership, which is currently politically fragmented, as well as on Article 16/2 of the Regulation.
After the parliamentary session, Basha told reporters that the head of the parliamentary group had been changed with the entry into force of the new statute of the Democratic Party.
"As the chairman of the DP, charged by the statute with the task of group chairman, authorized to delegate, I intend to delegate it to one of the vice-chairmen," said Basha.
In parliamentary practice, changes in the composition and direction of parliamentary groups are announced by the groups themselves.
Following this practice, the group of the Socialist Party also announced on Monday to the Assembly that "with the agreement of all members of the group, the new chairman of the group has been elected Blendi Çuçi". In this case, the letter was signed by the vice president of the group, Toni Gogu.
Meanwhile, Bardhi, a former supporter of Basha, announced a meeting of this party's MPs on Tuesday, where former Prime Minister Sali Berisha is expected to participate with supporting MPs.
"All of them, 59 MPs, have received the notice," Bardhi told BIRN, describing this meeting as a moment that will unify the parliamentary opposition.
The largest opposition party has been involved in a long political conflict over its leadership, first between Basha and Berisha, then within the group that initially supported Basha./BIRN
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