Albania’s opposition disrupts a budget vote with flares and piled-up chairs in Parliament

By LLAZAR SEMINI
Associated Press

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albanian opposition lawmakers have disrupted the Parliament’s session again to protest what they say is increasingly authoritarian rule by the governing Socialists. Democratic lawmakers on Monday lit flares and piled chairs on top of each other in the middle of the hall the minute Prime Minister Edi Rama took his seat to vote on next year’s budget. One of the flares sparked a small fire that was extinguished by opposition lawmakers. A cordon of bodyguards stopped opposition lawmakers from getting near the seats of the Cabinet. The Socialists, who hold 73 seats in the 140-seat Parliament, made a quick vote in principle and closed the session in five minutes. The opposition wants to create commissions to investigate alleged government corruption.