Stop Setting Fire to Things in Parliament, Angry Albanian Politicians Told

Rival politicians in Albania face criminal charges after lighting fires and smoke-bombs in parliament to sabotage a string of key debates.

Albania’s interior minister Taulant Bala said Tuesday that opposition members – who are protesting the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama – could be prosecuted for setting fire to bins and throwing smoke bombs and lit cigarettes over the past month, which forced multiple cancellations of legislative business. 

The latest incident on Monday came as members from the opposition Democratic Party refused to allow parliament security guards to search them for flammable materials before attending a session about the flaming disruptions. After clashing with security, the politicians began lighting fires. 

On November 20, Sali Berisha, a former prime minister and president as well as the leader of the Democratic Party, protested his indictment in October for official corruption – charges he has dismissed as politically motivated – by starting a small fire in a bin. 

His allies sparked smoke bombs to disrupt the debate over Albania’s 2024 government budget and used a barricade of overturned chairs and desks to block security. 

On Monday, after clashing with security again, opposition politicians led by the appropriately named MP, Flamur Noka, who had taken charge after Berisha has been suspended from parliament, threw lit cigarettes at parliament speaker Lindita Nikolla and started another fire in a bin.

“The Penal Code clearly defines…the intentional destruction/damage of property by fire and other means, which are punishable by five years in prison,” said Balla to local media. 

The latest incident involving legislation and arson stems from a long-standing battle between Rama’s Socialist Party – in place for the last decade – and its bitter rivals in the Democratic Party.

“Berisha claims persecution from Rama over a series of local corruption allegations from his time in office,” said a Western diplomat based in Tirana, who asked not to be identified for diplomatic reasons. “It’s a bitter, long-standing dispute between rivals who seem to hate each other that’s become a bit of a distraction as Albania pushes for EU membership.”

The tiny Balkan nation has been fighting to clean its international reputation for criminal activity and corruption, with Rama focusing on EU integration and developing Albania’s considerable potential as a tourist destination, but progress has been slow.

“Rama has to walk a line between running a poor country in southern Europe that wants to integrate with the EU and battling organised crime elements that largely dominate the country,” said an EU law enforcement official who tracks the cocaine trade. “Albanian transnational crime groups play a major role in the trafficking of cocaine, heroin and cannabis throughout Europe and have major economic power in such a small place.”

The official said that Albanian crime groups control a large portion of the cocaine trade between South America and Europe’s northern ports in Belgium and the Netherlands. 

“Most of the operations of these cartels are spread across Europe via Albania’s prominent diaspora but Albania itself plays a key role in money laundering and investing the profits. Rama can’t ignore this economic power, so there’s frequent political fights between various [factions].”

In October, Albania was removed from the international watchlist for money laundering maintained by the Financial Action Task Force after a four year stint as listed as having failed to properly combat illicit financial operations, but regulators warned that signs of problems continue and need to be continually monitored.

“We think they’re trying but there’s still significant signs that the economy remains vulnerable to illegal activity,” said the EU police official.

This summer analysts noted that the Albanian currency (Lek) had significantly gained against the Euro. While government officials praised increased tourism and foreign investment for the glut of Euros, political and financial analysts suspect that illegal cash flows played a major role.

“Some strengthening (of the lek) has come from non-formal economic factors or in Albanian: informal or criminal economy,” said analyst and political commentator Neritan Sejamini in an interview in October.