The commander of Islamic State in the Greater Sahara was killed in a French military operation, President Emmanuel Macron said in a tweet. The jihadist cell was active in the Mali-Niger border region in the African Sahel.
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Albanian President Ilir Meta delivers a speech during a news conference in Tirana, Albania June 10, 2019. REUTERS/Florion Goga/File Photo
Albania s parliament voted on Wednesday to sack President Ilir Meta over statements which the ruling party said advocated violence and violated the constitution.
Some 104 of parliament s 140 deputies voted for Meta to be dismissed more than a year before the end of his term, the first time this has happened in Albania since the multi-party system was introduced in 1991.
The Constitutional Court, whose approval is needed to formalise parliament s decision, is expected to rule within three months.
The Socialist Party, which was re-elected in April, has accused Meta of fomenting violence by siding with opposition parties in alleging before the parliamentary election that it would be rigged.
, KU Leuven
The Albanian parliamentary elections of 25 April raised high hopes for the country’s progress towards democratisation and EU accession. They were the first elections held under the new electoral law, agreed upon by the ruling party and the opposition on 5 June.
The elections were also severely scrutinised by the EU, which has listed the adoption and implementation of the electoral reform in its 15 points conditions for the opening of Albania’s accession talks.
After two years of the opposition boycotting the parliament and refusing to participate in the 2019 local elections, these elections were a window of opportunity for the political actors to reset the way of doing politics as high polarization and mistrust have been dangerously embedded in the Albanian party system over the past decades.
Albanian lawmakers to investigate president for impeachment
LLAZAR SEMINI, Associated Press
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Albanian President Ilir Meta speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Tirana, Albania, Wednesday, April 21, 2021. Albania’s president waded deep into the country s parliamentary election campaign Wednesday, accusing the left-wing government of running a “kleptocratic regime” and bungling its pandemic response. In an interview with The Associated Press, Ilir Meta also said he would step down if Prime Minister Edi Rama s Socialists who are leading the main opposition conservatives in opinion polls win Sunday s vote.Hektor Pustina/AP
TIRANA, Albania (AP) Lawmakers in Albania agreed Friday to form an investigative committee to decide whether to impeach the country’s president, whom the governing Socialist Party accuses of violating the constitution by taking political sides in an election last month.
1 of 9 FILE - In this Wednesday, April 21, 2021 file photo, Albanian President Ilir Meta speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Tirana, Albania. Albania’s president has accused the U.S. ambassador of intervening in the small European country’s internal affairs by supporting its prime minister in an upcoming parliamentary election. Meta spoke harshly about Ambassador Yuri Kim during a television talk show on Friday, April 23, 2021. While the show was airing, Kim sent a text message to Meta and also tweeted about Sunday’s election. (AP Photo/Hektor Pustina, File)
2 of 9 Leader of socialist party Edi Rama holds a speech during a closing political rally in city of Durres, Albania on Friday, April 23, 2021.Albania holds parliamentary elections on Sunday amid the virus pandemic and a bitter political rivalry between the country s two largest political parties but that will serve as a key milestone in the country s next step toward Eur