Page 14 - SE Outlook Regions 2023

Movement (previously the Socialist Movement for Integration, LSI) saw
its share of the vote slip in 2021, and now has only four seats in the
current parliament.

This opposition disarray has helped the Socialists, with a recent poll
showing that Rama remains more popular — or perhaps less unpopular
— than his rivals.

The Euronews Albania Barometer published in October showed that
Albania’s political landscape is deeply polarised, and Albanians are
overwhelmingly pessimistic about the way their country is going.

Of the country’s main politicians none had an approval rating of over
50%. Rama came the closest, with 40.6% saying they had a positive
opinion of him – but that left 56% with a negative opinion.
Other politicians performed even worse. Berisha won the approval of
just 26.2% of respondents, with 71.5% having a negative opinion of
him. Only 6.7% had a positive opinion of Meta, compared with 90.7%
who had a negative opinion.

On announcing the date for the local elections in October, President
Bajram Begaj, who took office earlier in 2022, talked of the need to
establish “political normality” in Albania’s local governments and urged
political parties to go to the elections with “serious and competitive
political alternatives, which focus on the citizen and the best democratic
standards”.

He also said that the Electoral Reform Commission must speed up its
work so as to address all the issues arising from the recommendations
of the OSCE/ODIHR in time.

On the international front, Albania is a Nato member and a staunch
member of the Western camp. It was quick to join international
sanctions on Russia after the invasion of Ukraine in February (though
its economic ties with Russia were already relatively small).

A EU candidate country since 2014, Albania secured the long-awaited
start of accession negotiations in June 2023.

The latest enlargement progress report on Albania, issued by the
European Commission in October, says the county is moderately well
prepared in areas such as public administration reform, the reform of
the judicial system, and calls for additional efforts in the fight against
organised crime and corruption.

Rama has repeatedly criticised the EU for its slow progress on
accession. He also took on the UK government over its scapegoating of
Albanians, accusing British ministers of using them to distract from their
own policy failings.

14 SE Outlook 2023 www.intellinews.com