Democratic Party MP Luan Baçi has called for all opposition forces to unite in support of the student protests, opposing any effort to set restrictions on who should or should not be part of them. In an interview with News24, Baçi stated that the students’ demands are the same as those the Democratic Party has articulated for years.
“If they do not want him, when the elections come they should not vote for him, and if they do not vote for him, he will not become prime minister”, Baçi said. The deputy clarified that the DP’s position is not related to opposing Edi Rama as leader of the Socialist Party, but to his continuation at the head of the government and the control that, according to the opposition, he exercises over state institutions.
“We are not saying that we will not hold elections with Rama as leader of the Socialist Party. We are saying that elections will not be held with Rama as prime minister, who holds the entire state, holds all power, and holds all the links of this state”, he said. Regarding how the prime minister should be removed, Baçi called for a common opposition front, without conditions and without exceptions. He stressed that the aim should not be for the DP to immediately take power, but to create a caretaker government that would prepare new elections.
“All opposition forces, without exception, without setting conditions, unity without any condition, all out in the square for the overthrow of Rama”, Baçi said. According to him, after Rama’s departure, parliament should form a government with a defined mandate, whose main task would be changing the Electoral Code and depoliticizing the public administration. Baçi argued that organizing elections under the current government would not, in his view, guarantee equal competition between the parties, as state mechanisms would remain under the control of the majority.
Among the alternatives that could be considered, he mentioned a national or regional proportional system with 100 percent open lists, also bringing attention to the Kosovo model. “Almost the overwhelming majority of my colleagues, Democratic Party deputies, are in favor of changing the Electoral Code to respond to the students’ demand, even though it is to the detriment of the Democratic Party”, Baçi concluded.