Yuri Kim: If Berisha takes the lead in party, US breaks ties with DP

In an interview for Top Channel, the American ambassador said they cannot imagine a scenario where she or any of her descendants can claim that everything goes well and goes for coffee with someone who was declared by the Secretary of State for Major Corruption.

We will not engage with anyone who was announced by the Secretary of State. This is a policy all over the world and it has nothing to do with individuals, but the general policy is we can't imagine a scenario where I or any of my descendants can pretend that everything goes well and we can go for coffee with someone who was declared by Secretary of State for Major Corruption. It's not gonna happen”, she said.

Regarding whether the US supports DP chairman Lulzim Basha, the US ambassador said that we recognise what has been regularly elected as the head of that party as we continue meetings with her in the quality of the party chairman.

We regularly consider the person chosen as the head of that party and I will continue to see Basha in his quality as party chairman. As you have seen, lawmakers and other visitors from Washington will do the same”, she said.

Close relations between the former prime minister and Democratic Party chairman suffered a deep break when State Secretary Antony Blinken declared former Prime Minister Berisha and his family unsuitable to go to the US, while the head of state declared him unsuitable. The DP expelled Basha from the opposition parliamentary group.

State Secretary Antony Blinken identified Berisha, his wife and two children as individuals not eligible to travel to the United States because of former Prime Minister Berisha's involvement in major corruption.

After that, Basha expelled Berisha from the MP group and stressed several times publicly that, as DP chairman, he would not allow the party to turn into a bunker for former Prime Minister Berisha's personal interests and that he would not allow the Democratic Party to hold the constitution for US decisions.

On the other hand, Berisha again testified to his insistence, when he declared at a rally that he would run for the Democratic Party's post in the Parliament, for whose call, according to him, the delegates' firms had already been collected.

According to interpretations on the statute by the DP, it is the chairman who decides whether or not a party decision is called.

Basha has recalled that he has just been re-elected president of the Democratic Party with a majority majority vote.

He has proposed in the country a vetoing process for the purity of assets and the integrity of politicians, similar to what is being done for judges, even expressed readiness for this veto to first start by the opposition chairman before involving the government and all other politicians.

Former Prime Minister Berisha resigned from the right-wing in 2013, when he lost a deep election in front of the Socialist Party, led by Edi Rama.