Albania is facing the most serious political crisis of Edi Rama’s thirteen years in power. Protesters demanding the prime minister’s resignation have attacked government buildings, clashed with police and damaged public and private property. The unrest has spread from Tirana to the country’s major urban centers, exposing a level of public anger and frustration that the government appears to have profoundly underestimated. The unrest is not simply a reaction to recent events. It reflects a deeper crisis of governance, representation and public trust that has developed over many years.
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The outbreak of violence appears to have caught Rama completely by surprise. For months, the peaceful protests of the Flamingo movement were dismissed, mocked and ignored. Convinced that they would sooner or later fade away, Rama failed to grasp the depth of the public discontent they reflected. The violent unrest that followed exposed just how badly he had misread the mood of Albanian society.
Yet the warning signs had been accumulating for years. The concentration of power, corruption, perceptions of state capture and limited opportunities had steadily eroded public trust. While a narrow political and economic elite prospered and grew richer, many Albanians felt increasingly excluded from both the country’s progress and its political system.
Rama’s response to the unrest has been characteristic of an increasingly authoritarian style of governance: relying on the police, blaming the opposition and outside forces, and largely dismissing the grievances that brought people into the streets. Most strikingly, he has portrayed the unrest as a temporary outburst rather than a fundamental challenge to his way of governing. This approach has done little to contain the crisis and has instead reinforced the image of a leader increasingly detached from the realities facing his country. The unrest continues to spread, public anger remains unabated, and reliance on force risks deepening rather than containing the crisis.
Albania urgently needs dialogue and a credible process capable of restoring legitimacy, rebuilding trust and charting a path forward. But the conditions necessary for such a process are largely absent. Years of Rama’s personalized rule have helped create an institutional vacuum, hollowing out the very channels through which dialogue would normally take place. This institutional void is particularly apparent at a moment of national crisis. Parliament, which should serve as the principal forum for national debate and representation, has effectively withdrawn from the crisis, canceling its session as the unrest spread. Meanwhile, the president has shown little willingness to assume the role of initiating dialogue or mediating that is required in moments of national emergency. Genuine debate within the ruling Socialist Party has become exceedingly rare, communication between the government and the opposition has all but ceased, and many Albanians, particularly young people, feel disconnected from a political system that no longer reflects their aspirations. Civil society, independent intellectual voices and other institutions that could help bridge political divides have remained largely on the margins of a national debate that urgently needs their contribution.
Nevertheless, the gravity of the crisis leaves little room for delay, indecision or complacency. Political, intellectual and civic forces must find a way out. Any effort to resolve the crisis must reach beyond the traditional political establishment, which has helped create the current impasse, and include student activists, civil society organizations, independent voices and representatives of younger generations. A revolt fueled primarily by disillusionment with the country’s governing elites cannot be resolved by those same actors alone. The challenge is to build a process credible enough to regain the trust of citizens who no longer believe the existing political system adequately represents them.
The international community also has an important role to play. The United States and the European Union have invested heavily in Albania’s democratic development and Euro-Atlantic integration. Yet Washington appears less inclined than in previous periods to become involved in disputes over democracy abroad, while the EU has lost credibility in the eyes of many Albanians because of its perceived tolerance of democratic backsliding and corruption under Rama’s government. Nevertheless, neither should remain a passive observer. Albania’s stability and democratic development remain important strategic interests for both Washington and Brussels. They should use their influence to facilitate a process that promotes dialogue, compromise and institutional reform. The aim should not be to impose solutions from outside, but to help create the conditions for a peaceful transition and democratic renewal.
Ultimately, it is up to Albanians themselves to find a way out of the current crisis. But that task will be difficult as long as the crisis remains inseparable from Rama’s own leadership. Having concentrated unprecedented power in his hands and presided over a system increasingly associated with corruption, patronage and state capture, he now bears responsibility for a political crisis that has turned into a nationwide revolt. His continued refusal to acknowledge the depth of the crisis makes it increasingly difficult to see how he can lead Albania out of it. The gulf separating his government from society is too wide to bridge through police action, rhetoric or limited concessions.
The crisis has severely undermined the political order built around Rama. There are growing signs of unease within the very establishment that has supported his rule. Although few Socialists have openly challenged him, many appear increasingly dissatisfied with both his governing style and his handling of the unrest. The same may be true of influential business and political interests whose support has long rested on the promise of stability and continued access to power. The widespread anger sweeping the country is directed primarily at Rama himself. Having become the focal point of the crisis, he appears increasingly incapable of providing the leadership needed to resolve it. Rama’s resignation has now become a prerequisite for restoring political legitimacy, easing tensions and paving the way for democratic renewal.
The challenge facing Albania extends far beyond the fate of a single leader. Rama’s departure, whether voluntary or forced by political realities, would be only the first, but essential, step toward halting the country’s political deterioration and creating the conditions to address the deeper structural problems that have brought it to the current impasse. The most likely path forward would be the formation of a broadly supported technocratic or transitional government tasked with restoring stability, reopening channels of communication and preparing the country for genuinely competitive elections. Its mandate, however, must extend beyond managing a political transition. It must begin to address corruption, patronage networks and suspected links among political, business and criminal interests that have steadily eroded public trust in state institutions.
Restoring trust requires more than a change of government. It requires a visible commitment to accountability at the highest levels of public life, including impartial investigations into corruption allegations, upholding the rule of law and ending the culture of impunity that has too often protected senior government officials and politically connected individuals.
Equally important is ensuring that citizens feel genuinely represented within the political system. Holding early elections under the existing rules would risk reproducing many of the distortions that contributed to the current crisis. Albania’s electoral system favors the country’s two dominant parties, limiting opportunities for alternative political movements to emerge and compete effectively. A fundamental reform of the electoral framework must therefore precede any return to the ballot box.
The objective should not simply be to hold fairer elections, but to build a more representative and open political system. Albanian democracy needs more space for new political forces, independent voices, civic initiatives and young leaders whose aspirations remain largely unrepresented. The country cannot overcome its crisis simply by transferring power from one familiar actor to another. It must open the political arena to new ideas, new leadership and younger generations who have grown increasingly estranged from the institutions that govern them.
Yet these measures, however necessary, would address only the immediate crisis. At its core, the current unrest reflects the exhaustion of a political system characterized by concentrated power, pervasive corruption, limited accountability and declining public trust. The greater challenge is to rebuild Albania’s democratic foundations: strengthening institutions, restoring checks and balances, combating corruption, protecting media independence and ensuring that public office serves citizens rather than entrenched political and economic interests.
Rama now faces a clear and decisive choice. By stepping down, he could spare Albania months, perhaps years, of instability, polarization and uncertainty, while opening the way for national reconciliation and democratic renewal. Alternatively, he can dig in, continue down the path of confrontation and rely on coercion and the instruments of state power to preserve his position. Such a strategy, even if successful in restoring order in the short term, would do little to address the underlying causes of the crisis. Instead, it would risk deepening polarization, accelerating institutional deterioration and prolonging a confrontation whose cost Albania can scarcely afford. In the process, it could overshadow much of what he has achieved since taking office in 2013, leaving his legacy defined not by the significant progress made under his leadership, but by his failure to recognize the moment when the national interest demanded a different course.
Albania’s current crisis has exposed the limits of a political model that no longer enjoys the trust of broad segments of society. Yet periods of profound upheaval can also create opportunities for renewal. The students and young activists who have emerged at the forefront of the current movement are heirs to the democratic aspirations that transformed Albania more than three decades ago. Their demands for accountability, representation and opportunity reflect a determination to build a state that is more responsive to its citizens, more inclusive and more democratic.
Albania has repeatedly demonstrated an extraordinary capacity to confront and recover from adversity. The responsibility now rests with its political leaders to respond with the vision, restraint and sense of national responsibility that this moment demands. If they succeed, the current unrest may ultimately be remembered as the turning point that inspired a new generation to help fulfill Albania’s democratic aspirations.
Elez Biberaj holds a doctorate in political science from Columbia University and retired from Voice of America in December 2023 after a 43-year career.
By Dr. Elez Biberaj
