Page 9 - bne IntelliNews Southeastern Europe Outlook 2025

1.0 Political outlook 1.1 Politics – Albania
2025 is set to be an eventful political year for Albania, with a general election expected on May 11. Tensions are already rising in Albania as the election approaches.
Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialists have now been in power for almost three terms. With the Socialists dominating the parliament, the opposition, led by the Democratic Party, has increasingly resorted to protest actions and civil disobedience.
The Democratic Party has declined to participate in discussions regarding the election timeline. Opposition parties have boycotted some previous elections since the Socialist came to power back in 2013.
Issues such as electoral reform, diaspora voting, and economic recovery are likely to dominate the campaign period.
In the last parliamentary election, held in 2021, the Socialist Party secured a decisive victory, obtaining 74 out of 140 seats, allowing it to govern without a coalition. The Democratic Party secured 59 seats but faced internal divisions afterward, which continue to affect the party's unity and strategy.
Former president and prime minister Sali Berisha has wrested back control of the party from Lulzim Basha. Berisha and other opposition figures accuse Rama of tightening control over state institutions. Fears on the part of the opposition that they will be unable to make headway in the polls have prompted actions such as mass protests and violent actions by MPs including setting fire to chairs and letting off flares within the chamber.
Berisha is currently under house arrest in a corruption case, and was formally charged in September. He is blacklisted by both the US and UK. Fellow opposition leader former president Ilir Meta, leader of the Freedom Party, was arrested in October, also on corruption charges.
Corruption has long plagued Albania, hampering its democratic development and European Union membership ambitions. Over recent years, with the support of the EU and the United States, Albania has established judicial bodies like SPAK to investigate high-level corruption.
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