Albania is now an efficient laboratory to prove how easy it is to rebuild a totalitarian society in the conditions when the country is open to the world. The head of Albania’s opposition, Sali Berisha Albania’s former President and a
The head of Albania’s opposition, Sali Berisha(1), Albania’s former President and a former two-term Prime Minister, was arrested on Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023. Mr. Berisha’s arrest follows a two-year period of dramatic developments for the Democratic Party, which has been
By ANDI BALLA The ruling Socialist Party scored a sweeping victory in Albania’s May 14, 2023 municipal elections. SP won 54 out of 61 municipalities, including every single large city. Socialist mayors will govern more than 94 percent of the
By Veton Surroi The first lesson of the events of these days in the four northern municipalities of Kosovo is that the conflict between Kosovo and Serbia is not over. Even after 24 years, since Serbia signed the capitulation with
NEWS ANALYSIS TIRANA, April 19, 2023 – Albania’s political parties have started campaigning across the country for the upcoming May 14 municipal elections, which will determine the mayors and municipal council members of Albania’s 61 municipalities. By their very nature,
TIRANA, April 11, 2023 – With Albania’s government losing its final appeal to reverse a €120-million penalty in the Francesco Becchetti affair case earlier this month, Tirana is mulling exiting the jurisdiction of the international arbitration court that issued the
A lot of effort and money has been spent in a PR war in the Western press between Albania’s main political parties; which raises the question: Why are Albanian parties fighting a domestic political contest in foreign lands? For those
The lowest birth rates on record and the long-term implications are part of the massive demographic bill Albanians are paying for having an exceptionally high per-capita emigration rate. By ANDI BALLA TIRANA, Nov. 19, 2022 – In the cobble stone
By ALBERT RAKIPI* In a trajectory of extreme ups and downs in relations between Albania and the United States, President George W. Bush’s visit to Albania in 2007 marked the highest point. In international relations, the visit of a president
By ALBERT RAKIPI, Ph.D. On July 1, 2016, at the inauguration of the massive Osman Gazi Bridge, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama appeared as a passenger in a Turkish presidential limousine with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the driving seat. The Albanian
