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BIRN: Unannounced PS-PSD alliance becomes conditional alliance

Politiko 2025-04-23 17:23:28

Social Democratic leader Tom Doshi announced the objective of being part of the future governing majority while expressing dissatisfaction with Edi Rama's Socialists and criticizing the appointment of Benet Beci as campaign manager despite problems with the judiciary.

The leader of the Social Democratic Party, Tom Doshi, who is running in Shkodra, announced his goal of winning three parliamentary seats in this district, publicly expressing his dissatisfaction with the Socialists for the first time, while denying the idea that he could form an alliance with Berisha.

In a meeting with the electorate in Shkodra, the former socialist politician who was sanctioned by President Trump’s first administration for major corruption, criticized both major parties for corruption and added that he is ashamed that “half of the government is in prison and under investigation.” He specifically targeted Shkodra Mayor Benet Beci, who is under investigation, while publicly confirming for the first time the clashes with the Socialist Party, which he has supported without being in a formal alliance for the past eight years.

"The mayor of Shkodra, who is leading the SP campaign, is a defendant. How can a man who has stolen from citizens lead the campaign," declared Doshi.

Doshi was a Socialist MP for several terms but was expelled by Rama in 2015 and was elected MP in Shkodra for the Social Democratic Party in 2017. In 2018, he was placed under sanctions by the United States government, led at the time by President Donald Trump. Doshi led the party without being an MP in the 2021 elections and won three terms, two in Shkodra and one in Tirana.

The Social Democratic Party scored an unusual success in the 2023 local government elections, winning 86,000 votes and 116 councilor mandates. The PSD's votes in those elections suggest that it is aiming for mandates in several districts of the country, including Shkodra, Lezha, Kukës, Dibra, Tirana and Fier. In Kukës, Dibra and Lezha, the Social Democrats' votes may not be enough to win a mandate, but if they erode the ranks of one party, they could help the other party, because in these districts the number of mandates is odd and the formula for allocating mandates favors the party that manages to win even one vote more than its competitors.

The Social Democrats are competing in these elections with many directors of the current Socialist Party administration, although their relations with their big brother have not been entirely good recently. PSD candidates in Fier complained about attempts to lay off workers in the public sector, allegedly because of running for this party.

Officially, PSD and PS have not been allies since the party came under Doshi's leadership, and in the days after the 2021 elections, when the fate of the Socialists' governing majority was uncertain, Doshi immediately publicly declared his support for Edi Rama. His three deputies have regularly voted in parliament in support of the Socialists, and recently, the Central Election Commission formally classified this party as part of the majority.

Unlike past elections when Doshi seemed to serve as Rama's backup stone for creating a majority in case Albanians did not give him 71 mandates, this time Doshi announced his intention to be the keystone, with the strength of the mandates won in the elections.

"...without the Social Democratic Party there is no majority in Albania," he declared as he asked Albanians for their votes under the promise that he would invest in medical equipment for the treatment of cancer, equipment that is currently lacking in Albania.

The results of the past elections in Albania have been a simple but comfortable majority in terms of seats for the Socialists in 2017 and 2021, but additional seats above the quota of 71 have always proven difficult to capture. In the 2009 elections, the seats were divided 70 for the DP, 66 for the SP and 4 for the LSI, which helped the latter become the decisive force in the governing majority, a position that after the May 11 elections could be held by the Social Democrats or by one or more of the small new competing parties, which could receive parliamentary seats mainly in Tirana./BIRN