Jozefina Topalli admitted today in the Assembly that in the 2021 elections she did not run alongside the Democratic Party and essentially, she entered the race in a position that objectively damaged the DP. Responding to Taulant Balla, the former Speaker of the Assembly stated that her decision came because, according to her, "the majority had captured Lulzim Basha."
Topalli categorically denied ever having met with Balla, accusing him of having secret meetings with Basha.
However, she failed to mention one crucial fact: political cooperation does not necessarily mean personal meetings. In politics, the effect of votes is often more important than public meetings and statements.
According to official figures published by the CEC in 2021, Jozefina Topalli's Movement for Change received 934 votes in Shkodër, or 2.39%, while Topalli herself secured 506 favorable votes. In practice, the approximately 900 votes she attracted from the opposition electorate directly contributed to Tom Doshi's PSD securing a second mandate in this district.
These figures place Topalli's statement today in a broader context: despite the rhetoric of distance from the SP, the 2021 electoral result showed that her move had concrete consequences in the reconfiguration of mandates in Shkodra, to the detriment of the DP.
