Former chairman of the Democratic Party Lulzim Basha attacked the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI) soon after the House of Freedom coalition was announced.

Basha attacked LSI for joining forces with the Committee for the Re-founding of the Democratic Party, however he is one of the main benefiters of past alliances between the Democrats and LSI.

Basha’s biggest win and the only one so far was in the mayoral elections in Tirana in 2011, when he won against incumbent Edi Rama thanks to the coalition with a number of parties, one of them LSI, with its 23,000 votes.

In addition, in the race was also the communist Hysni Milloshi that contributed in Lulzim Basha’s narrow victory against Rama. At the time, it was Basha that requested from LSI to lure Milloshi into running for Tirana’s Municipality, taking 457 left wing votes that in his absence would have gone to Rama. Basha won the election with only eight votes more than Edi Rama.