Euronews journalist Ardit Hoxha revealed the background behind the expulsion of MPs Tritan Shehu, Oerd Bylykbashi, Belind Kellici and Agron Shehaj from the parliamentary group of the Democratic Party.

Hoxha said that the decision of the “Alibeaj group”, for the exclusion of these 4 MPs who support Berisha, came as a result of an initiative led by MP Ervin Salianji to take over the leadership of the DP parliamentary group.

According to the journalist, Salianji had collected the necessary votes to replace Alibeaj in the position of the group’s chairman.

With some exceptions, Alibeaj was nonetheless able to secure “his seat”, according to Hoxha.

“It seemed on the surface or in public opinion that there was a calm in the DP, at least during the last 2 weeks of December and during this first week of January, but within this calm, the parliamentary group was “boiling”. For several weeks, the MP of the Democratic Party, Ervin Salianji, had undertaken an initiative to collect signatures of the members of the democratic parliamentary group, to request support for him to take the leadership of the parliamentary group from Alibeaj. Mr. Alibeaj proceeded with the dismissal and felt threatened. Yesterday’s decision is an attempt to preserve the chair of the parliamentary group. With the signatures that Mr. Salianji had collected until yesterday, together with the expelled MPs, he exceeded the necessary majority and on Monday, when this change was made official, he would have been the new head of DP’s group and he would have replaced Mr. Alibeaj. Yesterday’s measure has blocked the way for this change, but not entirely, as to my knowledge, even after these 4 exceptions, Mr. Salianji still has a chance to have a majority in the parliamentary group, which he will try again,” said Hoxha.