Protest in Front of Parliament, DP Boycotts Plenary Session: Citizens’ Demands Must Be Heard

The Democratic Party Parliamentary Group strongly condemns the behavior of the majority in the Parliament of Albania, which continues to obstruct the opposition from exercising its constitutional functions and fulfilling its obligation to represent the interests of citizens.

On Tuesday, using the force of its numbers, the majority rejected the request for accountability from the Prime Minister and the holding of a parliamentary debate on the legitimate demands of citizens, who have been protesting for more than a month, as well as on the findings and recommendations of the European Parliament resolution adopted a few days earlier.

Continuing this obstructive approach, yesterday, at the meeting of the Conference of Chairpersons, the majority approved the parliamentary work calendar until the end of this parliamentary session, without setting a date for the review of the four draft laws submitted about a month ago by the Democratic Party Parliamentary Group. These are:

1. The draft law to repeal the amendments to the law on protected areas;

2. The draft law to repeal the law on strategic investments;

3. The draft law to repeal the Mountains Package;

4. The draft law to repeal several provisions of the law on cultural heritage.

These legislative initiatives directly align with the demands of the protesting citizens and the concerns raised in the European Parliament resolution. For this reason, they should have been included on the agenda of today’s session, as they address issues of high public interest.

As long as the majority refuses to include these draft laws on the agenda or to schedule their review within this parliamentary session, the Democratic Party Parliamentary Group has decided not to take part in the work of Parliament in today’s session and strongly demands the inclusion of the four draft laws in parliamentary procedure for discussion and approval in Parliament.

On the other hand, we note that the Parliament building has been surrounded by hundreds of police officers to prevent citizens from protesting. If Parliament conducts its proceedings under a State Police cordon, solely with the aim of silencing the voice of citizens, then it loses its mission of representing the citizens.

Under conditions in which the majority continues to refuse the review of the opposition’s legislative initiatives and the Prime Minister, together with the Government, systematically avoids accountability on issues that directly affect the public interest, our presence in today’s plenary session would not serve the protection of citizens’ interests, but would only legitimize a parliamentary process that is being conducted in violation of the principles of parliamentary democracy.