Members of the right-wing opposition in the Parliament of Albania, who were expelled from the work of the parliament due to riots in the assembly on October 30, caused riots on Thursday, trying to force their way into the parliament building.
Earlier on Monday, deputies of the Albanian right-wing opposition took their chairs out of the parliament and set them on fire in protest of the prison sentence handed down to one of their colleagues.
Erwin Salijani, of the main opposition Democratic Party, was found guilty last week of giving false testimony in a drug-trafficking case targeting the brother of a ruling Socialist Party lawmaker. The judges suspected that some opposition members had made fake recordings.
After they were not allowed to enter the building due to the violence on Monday, 24 expelled MPs from the opposition tried to enter the building before the start of the plenary session, but were stopped by members of the National Guard.
Despite the verbal attacks on them, the members of the ruling majority entered the assembly hall and held a session. 71 MPs were present in the hall, without the opposition, according to the Macedonian Information Agency (MIA).
After tensions and clashes with the Guard and members of the ruling majority, the opposition placed puppets in front of the parliament with the image of Prime Minister Edi Rama, his brother Olsi Rama, former Minister of the Interior Fatmir Xafaj and his brother Geron Xafaj.
MP Flamour Noka, secretary general of the Democratic Party and former interior minister, doused the dolls with gasoline and set them on fire, just as he did with the parliamentary chairs on Monday. He said they were doing it as a "gesture of civil disobedience".
"We will make this gesture of civil disobedience, then we will be in action all the time. I thank the media for following this action of the opposition as one of the forms of struggle for democracy in this country," said Noka.
Incidentally, on Wednesday, September 2, late in the afternoon, the Secretariat for Ethics at the Albanian Parliament made a decision by which the MPs who caused chaos in the hall and set fire to chairs in front of the Parliament building were excluded from work for 10 days to two months.
Starting on October 3, Flamur Noka, Gazment Bardi and Bledion Nalbati were excluded from the Parliament for two months. For deputy Edi Paloka, this sentence is 10 days, while the other 20 were suspended for 40 days.
The opposition otherwise described Salijanji's arrest and conviction as "a blind act of revenge and political terror against the Democratic Party" and accused Prime Minister Edi Rama of being behind it.
"We will continue the fight against Rama, who is solely responsible for this situation," the head of the Democratic Party parliamentary group Gazmend Bardi (Bardhi) told reporters.
In a statement, Rama welcomed the court's verdict in the case, which he said had "shocked" the public.
Opposition MPs called on citizens to gather in the capital Tirana on October 7 for a protest against Rama. They announced that they would block roads across the country.
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