In two weeks’ time, Albania is about to hold the 10th general elections since the fall of one of the most tightly-closed communist regimes behind the Iron Curtain. Though it struggled during the 90s, Albania managed to make tangible progress in the 2000s. In 2006, it signed the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU, and three years later it became a NATO member. Its progress in fighting corruption and organised crime was awarded with the EU Council decision to lift the Schengen area visa regime for Albanian citizens in 2010.
However, its nascent free market economy remained fragile, thus making it non-competitive and non-resilient against the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008. Moreover, by the beginning of the 2010s, corny corruption in public administration, judicial system and government departments became a wide-spread phenomenon. Also lack of freedom of expression and respect of human rights were of great concern.
In these circumstances, Edi Rama, former Minister of Culture and Mayor of Tirana, and also leader of the Socialist Party (PS), was elected Prime Minister after the 2013 general elections, a landslide victory for the party following eight years in opposition. He promised to fight corruption and organised crime, reform the health care and education system, create 300,000 new jobs and accelerate EU integration of Albania. Paradoxically, instead of moving the country forward, his premiership proved to become a major setback for the country.
His Socialist government soon started to exhibit major flaws in fighting corruption and organised crime. The PS promoted in Parliament and local government people with notorious past and criminal records.
This led the opposition Democratic Party to submit and pass an unprecedented law, known as the decriminalisation package, which aimed to remove from public office people with criminal records.
The 2017 US State Department report on Drug and Criminal Control considered Albania a significant source country for marijuana, as well as a transit route for cocaine and heroin destined for European markets. Leaked wiretaps by Italian anti-mafia authorities led to the prosecution of the then-Minister of Interior Minister for international drug trafficking and participation in a criminal organization.
In addition, democracy started deteriorating during Edi Rama’s two terms in office. The weak but still somehow functioning democracy further degraded more and more into an authoritarian, one-man-rule regime, intolerant to freedom of expression and free press.
The Prime Minister has personally harassed, filed defamation lawsuits and offended journalists, calling them trash-bins and professionally incapable.
In 2019 his government proposed a controversial anti-defamation law, plausibly aiming to crack down on critical journalists and media outlets.
Most recently, the government lost an arbitration case for shutting down Agon TV station in 2015, after politically motivated state authorities charged the owner for tax evasion, forgery and money laundering.
Albania seems to have lost its battle against corruption, as it has become endemic in every level of government. The Institute for Democracy and Mediation, a think-tank based in Tirana in collaboration with Transparency International published a report envisioning Albania a captured state, where Parliament adopts tailor-made laws that benefit private interests at the expense of the public.
Democratic backsliding is further exemplified by the failure of Albania to hold free and fair elections. When Prime Minister Rama came to power in 2013, he pledged to restore democracy and public trust in elections. Contrary to this, once in power he became one of the biggest spoilers of free and fair elections. Wiretaps published by German tabloid BILD uncovered vote-buying schemes and voter intimidation perpetrated by his party’s officials, MPs, Mayors and Ministers.
These pitfalls with regard to rule of law and democracy have plausibly impeded Albania’s EU accession process. After 8 years in power, Rama’s government has merely managed to formally open accession negotiations with the EU.
In March 2020 the European Council decided to sit in the first intergovernmental conference with Albania provided it fulfills extended conditions relating rule of law, fight against corruption and organised crime, as well as implement OSCE-ODIHR recommendations in the electoral code to ensure free and fair elections.
Due to the poor performance of the economy, high unemployment, especially among the youth, and poor salaries under his tenure, Albania has suffered from emigration. Particularly the youth, many have fled the country to EU member states in search of better living conditions. In the period between 2012 until today, Albania ranks among the top countries of origin for asylum seekers in the EU member states.
Against this backdrop, Albania’s conservative Democratic Party (PS) led by Lulzim Basha is running in a broad coalition with smaller opposition parties and the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI), the third biggest political party in Albania.
The PD electoral manifesto pledges to recover the economy from the crisis caused by the pandemic, reform the health and education system, restore democracy, fight corruption and organized crime, and advance Albania’s EU integration bid.
Nonetheless, Basha faces two big challenges ahead: first, winning this general election, and second, getting rid of the old guard within the party, which has been undermining its inner democratization and public trust in the PD.
Addressing these challenges become more acute as Albania’s protracted democratic transition, rampant corruption, and EU integration fatigue has brought about a massive disillusionment among the population toward the much-proclaimed benefits of democracy.
A recent survey conducted by BiEPAG shows that only 38 percent of Albanians believe they can change the government through elections, the lowest percentage in the Balkans. The widespread dissatisfaction of Albanians with democracy and politics may keep the voter turnout low in the April 25 general elections, which would benefit the current government.
In this regard, the choice this time seems to be existential; voting either for the further erosion of democracy or for its restoration. The stakes seem to be too high to stand by.
*The author holds a Master of Arts in International Relations and Politics from University of Westminster, London. He is a research fellow at the Albanian Centre for Good Governance, a Tirana-based NGO. The views expressed in this article are those of the author.
