State Dept narcotics report clashes Albanian coalition partners

Tirana, Albania | Tirana Echo – A State Department report on narcotics has spurred a row between Albania’s government partners SP and LSI, raising doubts of further cracks in Albania’s centre-left governing coalition.

Following a report from the State Department which said that Albania remained a significant source country of marijuana for European markets, Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI) vice chair and MP Luan Rama slammed the government.

“This report shows once more the grave fact that Albania continues to remain an important source of marijuana and transit route of trafficking for cocaine and heroin”, said Luan Rama in a TV statement.

Immediately after, newly dismissed interior minister and a close confidant to the PM, Saimir Tahiri said that the comparative reading of this report should make LSI proud o be an ally of the Socialist Party during this historic period of reforms for the country.

“I don’t expect that sworn enemies of the State Police would read the State Dept report on a 3 year fight against cannabis, with clarity. May they be those of the protest tent in the boulevard, may they be the tents of the paid TV programs and commentators or may they be the hyenas that have come out of the SP backyard, who wish the destruction of the Socialist Party. They will receive the deserved answer on 18th June” – said former minister Tahiri, referring to Luan Rama’s former ministerial past with the Socialist Party and his later deflection.

The rhetorical clashes come at a tense time between PM and SP chair Edi Rama and Speaker of Parliament and LSI chair Ilir Meta, whose representatives regularly exchange mutual accusations of failure and corruption.

A few months back, former minister of justice and LSI senior representative Ylli Manjani claimed the situation with cannabis cultivation was so bad that the army should be deployed to tackle the problem, prompting fierce public debates. Later on it was Luan Rama again who claimed that the ‘cannabis plantation was done with the support of the police‘.