Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama appeared on track to win a fourth successive term in parliamentary elections after campaigning for his country to join the EU by 2030.
Preliminary tallies and exit polls on Monday indicated Rama’s Socialist party would maintain its majority in parliament, ahead of the rightwing Democratic party of former leader Sali Berisha, who had attempted a political comeback styled on Donald Trump’s Maga movement. Final results are expected on Tuesday.
The Socialists are expected to secure about 52 per cent of the votes, according to an exit poll by the Albanian Post, with the Democratic party garnering 38 per cent and a smattering of small parties sharing the rest. Turnout was 42.2 per cent even as the diaspora was allowed to vote for the first time.
Rama’s parliamentary majority, even if short of the two-thirds needed to enact constitutional changes, will be crucial to enact the reforms required for EU membership. The country joined Nato in 2009, but has struggled to accelerate the pace of its EU membership.
“Nothing and no one will be able to stop the European fate of Albanians,” Rama said at the weekend, noting that his country had opened accession talks with the European Commission in 24 of the bloc’s 35 areas of negotiations.
But some observers warned that as Rama, a former basketball player and painter turned politician, enters his fourth term in office — a first in the country’s post-Communist history — there was a risk that he would strengthen his grip on power.
“We have an old sheriff with even more muscle, which is a kind of paradox when you should strengthen independent institutions,” said Lutfi Dervishi, an independent analyst and former head of Transparency International in Albania.
“Albania should strive to keep political pluralism alive,” he said, noting that Rama first came to power in 2013 in a coalition. “With each mandate, he gets stronger . . . We risk [having] a cosmetic pluralism.”
As with some other countries in the western Balkans, one issue holding up more rapid EU accession has been the inadequacy of anti-corruption efforts. Rama, in the front line of politics for two decades, has struggled to curb corruption in his administration and reduce the influence of powerful criminal gangs.
Rama’s only challenger in this election posed even less of a breath of fresh air, even though he campaigned to “Make Albania Great Again”: 80-year-old Berisha, a former Albanian president who is banned from the US and the UK due to alleged corruption. He denies wrongdoing.
“I am disappointed with the results,” said consultant Edval Zoto of Integr Partners in Tirana. “I expected more support for new initiatives, hoping that they would provide a more serious opposition towards Socialist hegemony.”
Albania has struggled to curb emigration, driven by persistent poverty and corruption. The exodus has posed challenges for UK authorities, who are trying to curb illegal Channel crossings.
But Rama has remained a loyal US and EU ally, fostering a close relationship with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after offering to host Italian migrant detention centres on Albanian soil. He has also shown openness to doing business with senior figures in the Trump world, including Jared Kushner, the US president’s son-in-law, who plans to develop large parts of the Albanian coast.
“He cares to make powerful friends in the EU and beyond,” Dervishi said. “Unlike other Balkan leaders, Rama also has a luxury: nobody questions the country’s western direction.”
