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German television: Rama seeks to maintain power through unfair means, a risk to the European course

2025-05-13 21:50:37 / POLITIKË ALFA PRESS

German television: Rama seeks to maintain power through unfair means, a risk to

Edi Rama has secured an absolute majority in the Albanian parliament. More than 80 of the 140 seats are likely to go to the Socialists. Rama has not yet commented on the result.

The opposition leader, Sali Berisha, has reacted most loudly so far. His Democratic Party became the second strongest force. Berisha speaks of vote-buying by the government. Two days before the elections, the government had issued a kind of large-scale fine amnesty: 170,000 people were exempted from unpaid fines.

For Berisha, this was a gift from the election campaign:  “You yourself saw that two nights before the elections, fines totaling 150 million euros were waived. So, you can judge these elections for yourself ,” he said. Berisha called on his supporters to rise up in protest.

OSCE sees uneven playing field

Criticism has also come from election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE. According to them, the conditions were not the same for all parties.

Farah Karimi of the OSCE Election Observation Mission said the ruling party benefited extensively from state resources during the election campaign, thus gaining an unfair bonus for incumbency. There are also indications that pressure was exerted on voters.

Almost no independent information

Public administration employees, in particular, were forced to vote for the ruling party. It was also difficult for all voters to obtain independent information from the media, Karimi said.

“The concentration on the media sector, the undermining of the diversity of news sources and self-censorship by journalists, as well as the dominance of the two largest parties in reporting, limited the ability of voters to make an informed choice ,” Karimi said.

"Danger to the country's European course"

Election observers also criticized Albania for ignoring numerous proposals for democratic reforms of the electoral law for years.

German MEP Michael Gahler of the CDU sees this as a threat to the country's European course:  "This country will not join the European Union in the state it is currently in. But many things can change for the better. Therefore, I strongly recommend that all parties take these recommendations seriously ," Gahler said.

Rama wants to lead Albania towards the EU

Edi Rama was elected precisely for this purpose: his number one campaign promise was to lead Albania into the EU by 2030. Journalist Frrok Çupi sees this as the sole reason for Rama’s surprisingly clear election victory:  “One might wonder why the majority is so large. This is a bourgeois majority, independent of party preferences. It is about the greatest concern of the Albanian people: not to deviate from the path now.”

However, Rama also benefited from the fact that the opposition is divided. It is not certain whether he will now use his majority to implement democratic reforms. Critics accuse him of increasingly seizing power in the country. / German public television, ARD

 

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