The Democratic Party has launched an organized political attack on EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos after her statement that the May 11 elections in Albania were “free.” The successive reactions from the main leaders of the Democratic Party have created the panorama of a full-scale counterattack against the position of the senior Brussels official.
The first to come out publicly was the head of the DP Parliamentary Group, Gazment Bardhi, who accused Kos of biased positions and, as he put it, “the voice of a corrupt government.” Bardhi openly challenged the commissioner to bring a single case in Europe where a government acts according to the formula accused by the opposition, meetings with companies before announcing the tender and awarding contracts with violations.
He also focused on Kos's statement on the OSCE-ODIHR report on the May 11 elections, describing it as more extreme than Prime Minister Rama's own rhetoric. According to Bardhi, the commissioner should talk about European standards and not cover up government scandals.
A few hours later, the Secretary General of the Democratic Party, Flamur Noka, continued his political attack on Marta Kos with even stronger tones. In a harsh reaction, he accused the commissioner of “packaging” Prime Minister Rama in EU colors and ignoring critical OSCE-ODIHR reports. Noka mentioned corruption issues, scandals with IPARD funds and accusations of drug trafficking, warning Kos not to deviate from EU principles. “Kos, don’t be Boza!” wrote the man who seems not to spare even a European official his rhetoric towards political opponents in Albania.
The DP’s reactions continued with the party’s deputy leader, Oerd Bylykbashi, who called Kos’s statement on the elections an unacceptable distortion of the ODIHR report. He stressed that the official report clearly describes the uneven playing field, the use of state resources by the majority, and the pressure on voters — elements that, according to him, exclude any possibility of the elections being called “free and fair.”
