Democratic Albania

Albania’s progress toward democratic reform enabled it to gain membership in the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (now the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), formally bringing to an end its isolation. Efforts to establish a free-market economy caused severe dislocations, but they also opened the road for Albania to obtain large amounts of aid from developed countries. Albania thus began integrating its politics and institutions with the West, which Albanians have historically viewed as their cultural and geographic home.

In 1997 the economy collapsed when many Albanians lost their savings in various pyramid investment schemes. United Nations peacekeeping troops were brought in to quell the resulting civil disorder, and the Albanian Socialist Party won by a landslide in legislative elections later that year (and maintained power in elections in 2001 at the head of the Alliance for the State coalition). In 1999 some 450,000 ethnic Albanians sought refuge in Albania from the war in the Kosovo region of Serbia. Ethnic turmoil also strained Albania’s relations with the Macedonian republic in 2001, when that country’s large Albanian minority staged an armed rebellion. Tensions had cooled by 2003, and the two countries, along with Croatia, agreed to join together to fight organized crime.

Power shifted back to the Democratic Party following the 2005 legislative elections, and former president Berisha was named prime minister. He worked to implement economic and social changes in order to gain membership in the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), including taking measures to lower Albania’s high rates of crime and deterring corruption and drug trafficking. In 2008 Albania was formally invited to join NATO, and on April 1, 2009, it became an official member of the alliance. Berisha remained prime minister following legislative elections that June, when the Democrats defeated the Socialists by a slim margin. The official results came almost one month after the polls had closed, because the Socialists had demanded a recount. Some international observers also stated that electoral irregularities had occurred. The Socialists responded by boycotting the parliament and organizing street protests against the Berisha government. In January 2011 a demonstration outside the prime minister’s office turned violent, and four protesters were shot and killed by guards. The ongoing tension between the government and the opposition undermined Albania’s attempts to obtain candidate status for succession to the EU. While Albania’s political class struggled to restore voter confidence and establish transparency in the country’s election procedures, a sluggish economy plagued Albania. Trading partners such as Italy and Greece were at the centre of the euro area’s debt crisis, and exports and foreign remittances suffered accordingly.

The campaign leading up to the June 2013 general election was largely peaceful and orderly, but it was marred by a shooting on election day that left a Democratic candidate wounded and a Socialist supporter dead. The results of that election signaled a dramatic change in the Albanian political order. The Socialists, led by former Tirana mayor Edi Rama, captured a sizable majority of seats in parliament, and Berisha, who had been the dominant figure in Albanian politics since the fall of communism, conceded defeat. In 2014 Albania was granted candidate status for accession to the EU, but the country’s progress toward full membership depended on the enactment of significant political and economic reforms. The coalition led by Rama’s Socialist Party triumphed in local elections in June 2015, winning 46 of 61 mayoral races. The event signaled a welcome turning point in the country’s postcommunist history, as it was largely free of the irregularities and violence that had marked previous elections.