Albania’s Socialist Party has won a fourth consecutive term of office, with preliminary election results pointing to a landslide victory for Prime Minister Edi Rama in a vote widely seen as crucial for the country’s EU accession ambitions.
The prime minister is set to secure a decisive victory, winning approximately 82 seats in the 140-member parliament according to preliminary results, comfortably surpassing the 71-seat threshold required to govern alone. Full results will be issued later on Tuesday.
Rama, a dominant figure in Albanian politics for over two decades, has campaigned on stability, economic progress, and EU integration. “He has been the face of modernisation and Europeanisation,” Tefta Kelmendi, deputy director for the Wider Europe program at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told The Parliament.
After the fall of communism in 1991, Albania faced severe economic instability, high unemployment, and widespread poverty. Corruption, weak institutions, and a lack of foreign investment hindered the country’s development. Since Rama took power in 2013, Albania has seen significant investments in infrastructure and a growing tourism sector, particularly along the Adriatic coast.
But the prime minister’s long tenure has also been marked by rising living costs, allegations of state capture, and a wave of emigration among younger Albanians. In 2022 alone, over 46,000 Albanians left the country — the majority of them young people — fuelling a growing demographic crisis.
A vote for Europe
While his opponent Sali Berisha campaigned along nationalist lines — even hiring former Trump campaign strategist Chris LaCivita — Rama placed himself squarely in the pro-EU camp, pledging to complete negotiations on EU accession by 2027 and obtain final approval by 2030.
The EU has accelerated its enlargement efforts since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022: It began formal negotiations with Albania in 2023. “Rama has been very successful in positioning Albania as one of the absolute front runners in the enlargement process,” Kelmendi said.
MEP Andreas Schieder of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group told The Parliament that "the election result is quite important for continuing the enlargement process. It’s a signal of stability and the pro-European sentiment.”
While in the EU waiting room, Rama has reinforced Albania’s credentials by acting as a reliable partner for the bloc on key policy fronts, particularly migration. In late 2023, he struck an agreement with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to host two Italian-run centres on Albanian territory for processing asylum seekers intercepted at sea — a move that earned quiet approval from EU leaders despite criticism from human rights groups.
Now with a fourth term ahead of him, Rama has the chance to try to clinch EU membership, at a time when the bloc is particularly receptive to welcoming new members as a counterweight to Russian influence. The European Political Community (EPC) will host a summit in Tirana on 16–17 May, bringing together regional leaders and EU officials to discuss enlargement and security in the Western Balkans.
"If we are able to enlarge our model of society towards the Western Balkans, this would be the best answer for the moment which is necessary in a world of Xi Jinping, Putin and Trump, ” Schieder said.
Nevertheless, EU institutions and independent observers have raised concerns about the rule of law in Albania, with some alleging irregularities in the conduct of the election — ironically, in a pro-EU candidate’s favour.
Rule of law disputes
Nearly 600 international observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe were deployed to monitor the election. The OSCE’s final report highlighted significant flaws, including the misuse of state resources, vote-buying, and pressure on public-sector workers.
“The Socialist Party uses intimidation and threatens people with the possibility of losing their jobs,” Daniel Prroni, a researcher at the Institute for Democracy and Mediation in Tirana, told The Parliament. “For the European Commission, the challenge now remains of acknowledging the rule of law deficits in Albania and placing very clear benchmarks on how to address them.”
Rama’s government has made significant reforms aimed at improving the rule of law. But while the EU has welcomed these, the opposition claims they have had the opposite effect, bolstering the longstanding prime minister’s rule.
The Socialist government has conducted a sweeping overhaul of the judiciary, including the establishment of the Special Structure Against Corruption and Organised Crime (SPAK). Berisha, the opposition leader, has repeatedly called for the agency’s dissolution, claiming it serves the prime minister’s interests.
Nevertheless, official statistics suggest that the SPAK is among the most trusted institutions in Albania. The agency is investigating senior officials from both the Socialists and Berisha’s Democratic Party.
“A lot of work has been achieved regarding the rule of law,” Kelmendi said, adding that attacking the SPAK probably harmed Berisha’s electoral performance. “But the key challenge ahead lies in ensuring the sustained independence of enforcement institutions.”
By contrast, Berisha’s Trumpian rhetoric — promising a “great Albania” and a harder stance on immigration and social reforms — failed to meet the public mood.
“They tried to import issues from outside of Albania, and that did not sit well with voters,” Prroni said.
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