Berisha Rallies Support to Regain Albanian Opposition Leadership

The former leader of Albania's main opposition Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, on Tuesday told supporters in the central town of Kavaja that he intends a return to the helm of the party he left in 2013, in a direct challenge to the current leader, Lulzim Basha.

Under months of pressure by United States, Basha suspended his former boss from membership of the party's parliamentary group. Berisha was declared "non grata" by the US State Department in May, which cited his involvement in "significant corruption", "misappropriation of public funds" and interference in "public processes."

Berisha reacted by saying that he would sue US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken before the Correctional Court of Paris for "slander". On Tuesday, during his meeting with supporters Berisha announced that the Paris court had accepted his lawsuit.

After his expulsion from the parliamentary group of the DP, Berisha started a tour of the country, meeting party members and fans and expressing strong opposition to the current DP leader.

At the meeting in Kavaja, he said that he would run to lead the party again, provided that an election is held.

"I invite every [party] delegate from Kavaja, every delegate of the [party's] National Assembly to sign for a meeting of the Assembly, for statutory changes to install primaries, restore referenda as a direct form of your government, and sign to open a competition, in which I guarantee that every person who enters will have a free race. Of course, one of them will be Sali Berisha," he told supporters.

But political experts have questioned wherther Democratic Party could hold another round of elections only three months after Basha was reconfirmed as leader, despite his defeat by Socialist leader Edi Rama in...