The US State Department’s public designation as persona non grata of former President and Prime Minister of Albania, Sali Berisha, sent shock waves in Albania and across the region. The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the decision public in his tweeter account this May. Mr.Berisha was sanctioned by invoking the Section 7031 (c) provision, which bars individuals found to be highly corrupt or as egregious violators of human rights from entry to the United States. This extreme action is authorised by the US Congress in 2008. It intends to combat corruption, foster democratic accountability in the world and preserve national security of the United States.
Immediately after the announcement Mr.Berisha wrote publicly to US Secretary. In a long statement he considered the decision baseless and invited the US Secretary to disclose all records upon which his public designation was enacted. Berisha also expressed his intention to sue the US Secretary of State for defamation. In the meantime the US escalated its efforts in fighting corruption. On June 3, President Biden issued an executive order which established the fight against corruption as a core US’s national security interest[1].
Berisha’s designation seems to have broken apart a close alliance emanating from the fall of the communist regime in Albania. He has been the leading figure of Albania’s erratic democratic transition. He has led the Democratic Party for more than 25 Years, and served twice as President of the Republic and Prime Minister. Berisha has marked Albania’s politics for more than three decades. In the beginning of the 90s Berisha was publicly supported by the US administration. He is the first Albania’s head of state to be received at the White House by the US President.
Berisha’s relations with the US achieved a dead point in 1996-97 after 1996 elections and the collapse of the financial pyramid schemes, to be restored only in 2005 when Berisha returned to power as Prime Minister. During his tenure, President Bush visited Albania, the first US President to have done so until today, and it was with US support during his tenure that Albania became a NATO member state in 2009.
This is the second rift between US administration and Sali Berisha. This time it seems deeper and irreversible. The US Ambassador in Tirana, Yuri Kim, hit hard last week after a meeting with the DP leader, Lulzim Basha. After the meeting, she remarked that “that it would be a historic irony and a tragedy for the country, not only for the party, if the party were to eat grass for the sake of one man’s personal interest”. Her statement pointed out to Mr.Berisha. She asked the DP to publicly distance itself from Berisha, in light of his designation as persona non grata.
The decision has put the DP and its leader Lulzim Basha under severe pressure to expel Berisha from the parliamentary group. Lulzim Basha is probably facing the most important decision in his political career. If the leadership of the Democratic Party would choose to continue supporting Berisha, it would pit itself against the US, and in doing so it would need to fight a two front war, that is against the US as well as the Socialist Party, which it accuses of stealing the elections through the instrumentalization of state structures and public funds in order to commit electoral fraud. Such a decision will turn out to be catastrophic for the Democratic Party as it is today. It is on the other hand difficult to predict what the internal ramifications for the DP will be, in case Basha decides to publicly denounce Berisha, but it is certain that major changes will happen.
[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/06/03/memorandum-on-establishing-the-fight-against-corruption-as-a-core-united-states-national-security-interest/
