German ruling CDU warns Albanian opposition its boycott is harming party relations

Tirana, Albania | Tirana Echo – German ruling party CDU have told the Albanian opposition democrats that its parliamentary boycott is blocking justice reform and may harm relations between the two parties, urging DP chair to go back to Parliament.

In a letter sent to DP chairman Lulzim Basha, CDU-CSU group deputy chairman in the German parliament, Franz Josef Jung, who is also the head of the CDU’s foreign policy as well as Minister of Defense, has urged Basha to stop its parliamentary boycott and go back to unblock the current justice reform implementation.

CDU/CSU faction in the German Bundestag deputy Franz Josef Jung voiced dissatisfaction over the fact that the vetting of judges and prosecutors of Albania was not being implemented due to the DP’s boycott of the parliament.

Jung, of Chancellor’s Merkel’s party, considered the DP request for a technical government and their possible boycott of the elections as the wrong way to tackle the shared concerns over the potential mass vote-buying and election fraud in the 18 June 2017 parliamentary elections.

Jung closed the letter saying that the delays in the implementation of the justice reform and the elections’ boycott by the opposition would make Albania go backwards on its EU membership path and would highly damage the relationship between the Democratic Party and CDU/CSU.

The opposition democrats and other parties have been protesting for 38 days in front of the PM office demanding Rama’s resignation and the formation of a new technical government which will guarantee free and fair elections in June 18th.

The democrats are currently boycotting parliament, have removed themselves from electoral registers and have warned that if their two main demands are not met, there will be no elections in Albania.