the economist
Albania, Kosovo and the EU
A pair of Balkan neighbours falter on the road to Brussels
Mar 3rd 2011 PRISTINA AND TIRANA from the print edition
THE dream that Albania has of joining the European Union is in deep trouble. That is the bleak assessment of Miroslav Lajcak, the EU’s point man in the Balkans. Mr Lajcak has been trying to broker an accord between Sali Berisha, the prime minister, and Edi Rama, the leader of the opposition. He declares that, unless the two strike a deal before local elections in early May, they will share responsibility for the mess, “no matter what they say”.
There has been no normal politics in Albania since a general election in June 2009, when Mr Rama accused Mr Berisha of fraud. The opposition boycotted parliament and hunger strikers camped outside Mr Berisha’s office. This was deemed unbecoming for a country that had just joined NATO and had applied to the EU, so outsiders applied pressure to both sides. Now they have stepped in again: Jim Steinberg, the American deputy secretary of state, visited Tirana on February 25th. But as Mr Lajcak’s tone suggests, Albania’s foreign friends are losing patience.
The latest trouble flared in January, when Dritan Prifti, a former economy minister, gave a video to a television station that seemed to show Ilir Meta, the deputy prime minister, discussing a large bribe. Mr Meta denounced the tape as a fake, but still resigned. A few days later an opposition rally turned into a tragedy. Observers say a hard core of protesters were looking for trouble. But nobody expected that the Republican Guard in the prime minister’s office would open fire, killing four people in the crowd.
the economist.com
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