TIRANA – Albania’s main opposition coalition said Wednesday it had accepted a so-called “McAllister Plus” package, an integrated compromise proposal aimed at resolving the political crisis in the country ahead of the June 18 parliamentary elections, ATA reports.
In a 16-point statement, the opposition coalition provided a timeline detailing the chronology of most recent negotiations between the ruling majority and the centre-right opposition to resolve the political deadlock, following the Tirana visit by U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Hoyt Brian Yee.
“Opposition has decided to say ‘Yes’ to the integrated McAllister Plus proposal and it is time for Rama [Prime Minister] also to say ‘Yes’ and pave the way to jointly ensure through dialogue the proposal becomes completely applicable,” the opposition coalition said in its statement.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Hoyt Brian Yee visited Tirana earlier this week in a last effort to convince Prime Minister Edi Rama of the Socialist Party and main opposition Democratic Party leader Lulzim Basha reach a compromise ahead of the next month’s parliamentary election.
Last month, the Chairman of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee David McAllister (EPP) tabled a proposal to overcome the political impasse in the country. However, Albanian political leaders failed to reach an accord on the proposal at the talks mediated by McAllister and his fellow MEP Knut Fleckenstein.