Fifteen opposition lawmakers have now been barred from Albania’s parliament, nearly all of them for two months at a time, after a series of disciplinary rulings that have sharpened the country’s political crisis.
Thirteen of them will remain barred until mid- to late December, when their 60-day terms end.
The latest ruling came Friday. Parliament’s Ethics Secretariat suspended Democratic Party leader Sali Berisha for 10 days over remarks the Socialists said amounted to a call for violence. It suspended five other opposition lawmakers for 60 days each and spared a sixth, Klodiana Çapja.
What happened Thursday
The rulings followed a chaotic plenary session on Oct. 29. Opposition lawmakers lit flares inside the chamber and blocked the rostrum with whistles, and Speaker Niko Peleshi ejected four of them from the session.
The opposition requested a parliamentary debate from the Speaker on the latest protests and the political crisis in Albania. Their request was denied.
While blocking the rostrum, Berisha said, according to Albanian media, that the government deserved “rubber bullets and broken skulls.” Peleshi treated the words as incitement to violence and cut off his speaking time.
The Socialists then asked the Ethics Secretariat for harsher penalties. Their request alleged that several Democratic lawmakers used pyrotechnic devices and that others threw hard objects.
A pattern since October
Friday’s decision is the third such ruling in less than three weeks.
On Oct. 12, the Secretariat suspended Democratic lawmakers Gazment Bardhi and Klevis Balliu for 60 days over incidents during a vote on a territorial reform. The Socialists accused them of throwing water bottles and eggs toward Rama, parliamentary leaders and Socialist lawmakers. The measure also halts their pay.
On Oct. 23, the body suspended six more Democrats for 60 days: Flamur Noka, Belind Këlliçi, Edi Paloka, Fidel Kreka, Luçiano Boçi and Besart Xhaferri. The Socialists alleged that Noka physically attacked Peleshi and the Socialist caucus chief, Taulant Balla, and that Kreka struck former minister Ervin Hoxha with a voting pad. The Democrats have called the penalties unlawful.
In July, the Secretariat suspended Agron Shehaj, leader of the opposition Mundësia party, for 60 days. The Socialists said he took a physical copy of a confidential U.S. loan agreement out of the reading room during a July 27 session.
Suspensions typically take effect the day after the ruling, but Shehaj’s took effect when the autumn session resumed on Sept. 8. He has said he will challenge the ruling at the Constitutional Court.
The dispute over the rules
The Democrats say the penalties are excessive and unlawful. In the Bardhi and Balliu case, two of their lawmakers argued that the rules cap such offenses at 10 days, and they called anything harsher “punishment without law.”
Courts have intervened before. The Administrative Court of First Instance in Tirana previously repealed 30-day suspensions imposed on Democratic lawmakers in December 2025.
The wider picture
The suspensions come as Albania faces months of protests demanding Rama’s resignation, which he has refused. Critics say the government is using institutional tools to sideline opponents. The Socialists say they are enforcing order in a parliament where the opposition has repeatedly disrupted votes.
For about a week, from Oct. 31 to Nov. 6, all 15 lawmakers will be out of parliament at the same time, as the government moves its 2027 budget and tax package through the chamber.
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