Brussels -On the one hand, the promise of cleaning up the country of corruption and fast-track entry into the European Union. On the other, a Trump-inspired Make Albania Great Again. Albania will go to the polls on Sunday, May 11. It will see two well-known faces of national politics: the socialist premier Edi Rama, chasing a fourth term, and Sali Berisha, the first president elected after the collapse of the communist regime and leader of the center-right coalition. The only real game-changer is the first-time vote of the extensive Albanian diaspora, which counts some 250,000 registered voters.
Rama’s card to secure his fourth consecutive win is the promise of EU membership by 2030. A prospect that over four out of five citizens in Albania support, the highest of the Western Balkan countries. So much so that one of the hallmarks of Rama’s supporters is a white T-shirt with a large multicolored number 5 written on it, indicating the years until 2030. During his weekly rallies, Rama hoisted the twelve-star flags and said to his supporters in Pogradec, “We are at the gates of Europe, and those gates are now open for us.” In the past six months, Albania opened 16 of the 35 negotiating chapters for membership in the EU bloc.
According to World Bank data, annual economic growth for 2022-2024 exceeded 4 percent, driven by trade with the EU, booming tourism, and significant hydropower production. On the other hand, low living standards and high unemployment continue to lead to mass emigration: between 2011 and 2023, the Albanian population decreased by about 420,000.
In this context full of contradictions, the Socialist Party is still the favorite and aims to reconfirm the majority of the 140 seats in the Tirana Parliament. Facing Rama — who, over the years, seems to have built an unchallenged personal power — are the usual but weakened opponents: the Democratic Party, with which the Socialists have dominated the political landscape since the collapse of Enver Hoxha’s regime in the early 1990s. The Alliance for a Magnificent Albania — led by Democrats — is “the strongest coalition Albania has seen in 32 years,” according to Sali Berisha, the 80-year-old former prime minister and leader of the main opposition party to Rama.
Socialists and Democrats, no one is immune from rampant corruption
The comeback of Berisha at the helm of the Democratic Party after three years of turmoil, during which he was targeted by Joe Biden’s administration for alleged corruption, expelled from his parliamentary group, and placed under house arrest by the Albanian judiciary. His release revitalized the party’s base, but Berisha remains under investigation and subject to sanctions by both the United States and the United Kingdom, which definitely limits his international credibility.
Berisha is betting everything on an Albanian-style revival of Trump’s MAGA movement. He has hired as a campaign consultant Chris LaCivita, one of the masterminds of Trump’s last presidential campaign, and has adopted the slogans that are typical in the universe of the sovereignist right: the war on woke and Soros and accusations against the politicized judiciary that tried to remove him. His main ally, former president and leader of the Freedom Party, Ilir Meta, is currently in detention, arrested last October on charges of corruption and money laundering.
Even Rama is not immune to the country’s endemic corruption. During his twelve years in power, several scandals touched the premier and affected members of his governments and the Socialist Party. Most recently, the case of some illegally awarded six-figure contracts for the construction of incinerators, for which – following investigations by SPAK, the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office established in 2019 – former Environment Minister Lefter Koka was jailed and Rama’s former deputy, Arben Ahmetaj, was indicted and left the country (he now resides in Switzerland).
In five years of operation, the SPAK has seized 200 million euros in corruption and organized crime cases, and several media reports and international organizations have highlighted the ambiguities and murky connections between the Albanian political establishment and criminal networks involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. A study published last month by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime shed light on the role of the Albanian Mafia in the global cocaine trade, particularly through the port of Durres, made possible by corruption within Albania’s political, police, and judicial institutions.
The unknowns: the diaspora and the new anti-corruption parties
It is unclear what impact these events will have on elections, in which, for the first time, some 250,000 registered voters from the Albanian diaspora will take part. The impression is that, without a viable alternative, Rama should score his fourth consecutive win. However, should the Socialist Party fail to reach the 71 seats needed to govern alone (it currently has 76), Rama’s fast-track EU accession could be compromised.
In the seat count, new political groups that entered the race to give an alternative to the two establishment parties — widely perceived as too corrupt — could play a role. Levizja Bashke (Together Movement), a left-wing party founded in 2022 with roots in civic activism, Shqiperia behet (Making Albania) and Nisma Thurje (Initiative), two centrist anti-corruption parties running on a united list, and Mundesia (The Opportunity), led by Agron Shehaj, an entrepreneur and former Democratic Party MP.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
