Albanian PM announces new president candidate

Ilir Meta, current Albania's parliament speaker and the head of Socialist Movement for Integration (SMI), will be new president candidate to be voted on Friday's plenary session, Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama announced late Thursday.

After failing in the first three attempts to elect the new president, Premier Rama said that Ilir Meta enjoyed the full support of Socialist Party and that of Socialist Movement for Integration, the two main ruling parties.

"I do not know anyone else who can be with everyone and with no one. Meta is a presidential candidate who comes naturally, because it is the situation that requires Ilir Meta as country's new president," Rama said Thursday night.

He saw Meta as the president who would talk to everyone and tell everyone what he thought, adding that Meta was also an ideal solution for the main opposition party, Democratic Party which has refused to become part of this process.

Earlier, it was the vice chairman of the SP parliamentary group Taulant Balla who confirmed that SP would support the candidacy of Ilir Meta as the governing coalition's candidate for the country's next president.

The other candidacy proposed by SMI was that of the current Justice Minister Petrit Vasili.

On the other hand, the head of DP, Lulzim Basha told reporters that he didn't support Meta's candidacy.

According to him, even the offer of ruling SP for dialogue and talks over new president election was insincere as Basha said that Meta's candidacy was set about three months ago. Endit