Page 62 - bneMag Dec22

62 I Southeast Europe bne December 2022
International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index. In recent years, however, Albania’s performance has tailed off; in this year’s index it dropped six places compared to 2021.
Rama’s government has been repeatedly criticised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international financial institutions (IFIs) for the use of public-private partnerships (PPPs). While the government used PPPs to mobilise private investment for much needed infrastructure projects, many
of the projects were unsolicited and of questionable value.
Similarly, the record on fighting drug cultivation since 2014 has been patchy, and several interior ministers have had to step down because of alleged links to drug trafficking.
'Beautiful victory' or 'election massacre'
In the deeply polarised political environment in Albania, Rama and his Socialists have retained the upper hand. This was confirmed in April 2021, when – following an election period that several times erupted into violence – the party won a resounding victory that gave it an unprecedented third consecutive term in power.
Rama talked of the party’s “beautiful victory”, and outlined plans in his victory speech to turn Albania into the Balkan champion for tourism, energy and agriculture. He also appointed the world’s most female-dominated cabinet; over 70% of Rama’s new government were women, including the heads of
the ministries of finance, energy and foreign affairs.
Opposition leader Lulzim Basha, meanwhile, condemned the electoral “massacre”. Some of the opposition’s criticisms were backed up by international observers, who reported that members of the ruling party had taken advantage of their official positions during the campaign ahead of the general election.
A major scandal erupted when it was revealed that the Socialists had created a database containing the personal data
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of Albanian citizens, using data from state institutions. That included data on citizens' employment history, their religious beliefs, tax returns, telephone numbers, email addresses, social security numbers, sexual orientation and medical records. It also emerged that each and every Albanian citizen was under the “patronage” of a trusted Socialist Party member, reportedly called “patronagists”, tasked with keeping an eye on the people they had under their “patronage”.
Opposition disarray
The Socialists have been helped by the disarray of the opposition. Under former Tirana mayor Basha, the Democrats failed twice to dislodge the Socialists in the general elections in 2017 and 2021, while the Socialist League for Integration’s presence in Parliament has slumped to only four seats. Within the Democrats, the last election defeat was followed a very public struggle for power between Basha and Sali Berisha, culminating in Berisha’s supporters storming the party’s own headquarters. Berisha, who is sanctioned by the US for corruption, has since then taken over the party.
A recent poll showed that Rama remained the country’s most popular politician as of October – albeit with only 40.6% support, which was outweighed
emigration, remain some of the biggest challenges for Albania.
International profile
While pursuing EU accession, Albania was one of the co-founders of the so-called ‘mini-Schengen’, later named Open Balkan, along with Serbia and North Macedonia, with the aim of creating a regional free market for goods, services and labour.
The initiative hasn’t yet managed to win over the other three Western Balkan states, Bosnia, Montenegro and Kosovo, with whose leader, Albin Kurti, Rama reportedly has a strained relationship. Open Balkan also caused the Albanian opposition to criticise the prime minister for working with Vucic.
In the broader international sphere, Rama’s Albania has become more prominent – and not just because of the prime minister’s readiness to voice his opinions. Rama was one of only a handful of non-EU leaders chosen to speak at the launch of the European Political Community (EPC) in September. (Albania most likely benefited from Serbia, the biggest economy in the Western Balkans, being rendered toxic by its refusal to impose auctions on Russia.)
Albania is also one of the non- permanent members of the UN Security Council for 2022-23, a
“In the deeply polarised political environment in Albania, Rama and his Socialists have retained the upper hand”
by the 56% of respondents with a negative opinion of him. However, other politicians performed even worse, and the poll also revealed that Albanians are overwhelmingly pessimistic about the way their country is going.
Despite strong growth in recent years, high poverty levels and sharp discrepancies between the haves and have nots, combined with large-scale
critical period for the international community given the geopolitical context. Rama will also be the host of the next Berlin Process summit – the reason why he got to share the stage with von der Leyen and Scholz and expand on his thoughts on Britain’s migrant policy. From being one of the poorest nations in Europe and the most isolated, Albania is now punching well above its weight internationally.