The internationally popular autocrat – Edi Rama

Harry Brown
23 hours ago
4 min read

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama is a popular figure in European capitals and among the continent’s leaders. Rama has been seen as a steadfast ally of the European project and a stabilising force in the Western Balkans, as well as a helpful figure in the European Union’s immigration policy. Rama is also multilingual, smart and witty; showcased by his joking with French President Emmanuel Macron and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev over US President Donald Trump’s mistaken claim that he ‘ended the war’ between Albania and Azerbaijan, rather than Armenia and Azerbaijan. This popularity and sense of Albanian political alignment have made Rama become a fashionable figure in European circles and the country is rapidly advancing in European Union accession negotiations, setting a 2030 target date for membership.

However, Rama has overseen a ‘nuanced regression’ of democracy in Albania over the past decade. The victory of Rama’s Socialist Party in the 2021 parliamentary election was aided by state capture and patronage that skewed the political playing field and prevented the opposition from campaigning equally. Similarly, the 2025 election was not free and fair, with the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) perceiving it as competitive but marred by the misuse of public resources and the presence of vote-buying pressures.

In response to this election, many European leaders turned a blind eye; Ursula von der Leyen, Keir Starmer, Pedro Sánchez, Volodymyr Zelensky and Giorgia Meloni all congratulated Rama on his election victory without commenting on concerns over its fairness. If a similar election had taken place in Serbia, Hungary or Georgia, a very different response from European figures would have been likely. Moreover, there has been little reaction from European leaders to the ongoing protests in Albania over corruption, media freedom and environmental concerns sparked by proposed developments to a wildlife sanctuary backed by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Again, if such events had happened in a different country that did not follow a pro-EU foreign policy, harsh condemnation and criticism of the state’s leadership would be expected.

Therefore, despite the positivity of many European leaders, Albania does not have a healthy political environment. The Socialists’ state capture extends beyond elections to all parts of societal life, including media control, alleged collusion with organised crime and clientelist transactional relations with business and voters. Whilst Rama denies that his administration is corrupt, pointing to his creation of the Special Structure against Corruption and Organised Crime (SPAK), international think tanks classify Albania as a ‘hybrid’ or ‘partly-free’ country where politics is dominated by clientelism and personalities, and where elections are manipulated, gerrymandered and subject to fraud. Moreover, the main opposition force, the Democratic Party led by former Prime Minister Sali Berisha, engages in the same anti-democratic practices as the Socialist Party, and Berisha’s former governments were involved in corruption, crime and economic scandals. Consequently, similar to other citizens in the region like those in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, Albanians are made to choose between long-lasting corrupt leaders, and are often pushed to vote the way they do because of vote-buying pressures that threaten their livelihoods.

Why, therefore, is Rama a ‘darling of Europe’ despite presiding over a system not up to European democratic standards? The EU’s enlargement commissioner, Marta Kos, said in May 2026 that Albania had ‘transitioned into the concluding phase of EU accession negotiations’ and both Tirana and Brussels agree that Albania’s future is inside the Union. However, when viewed rationally, Albania does not appear to be a country that should be advancing in EU accession negotiations – that is without an external geopolitical context aiding Tirana’s fortunes.

In the pre-2022 world of anti-enlargement feeling and rhetoric, Albania in its present form would likely have made little to no progress in the accession process. Romania and Bulgaria caused the Union a multitude of problems after their possibly premature accessions in 2007, and Albania is arguably less prepared and suitable now than they were in the years before accession.

However, a Realpolitik attitude in Brussels, developed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, sees Albanian membership as an effective counterweight to Balkan instability, Serbian influence and Russian interference. The rapid progress of Montenegro in the accession process despite stubborn corruption, judicial and political issues in the country indicates that the EU is not as strict on some accession criteria as it was before 2022. Like Jakov Milatović and Milojko Spajić in Montenegro, Rama is seen as the European face of Albania; a figure whom the Union can trust to remain pro-European in a geopolitically contested region.

From a cynical point of view, it is understandable why Brussels and Western leaders choose to ignore some of Albania’s political issues, as in a region where the EU competes for influence with Russia and China, geopolitical reality asserts that Brussels cannot be too fastidious with its allies. Such a policy, one of ‘stabilitocracy’, has long been followed by the EU in its neighbourhood. Likewise, Rama is happy to play this game and to cooperate, at least superficially, with efforts and reforms to prepare Albania for accession. Thanks to this dynamic, as well as his natural charm, humour and charisma, smiling photos of the six-foot-seven Albanian Prime Minister with significantly shorter European leaders will probably remain commonplace, and Rama is likely to continue to be Europe’s internationally popular autocrat.