Albania: the dark side of Rama's election victory
The Socialist Party under Prime Minister Edi Rama has won the election in Albania and can now continue to govern with an absolute majority. According to the country's Central Election Commission, the Socialists received about 49 percent of the vote. International observers and Albanian media report incidents of pressure being put on officials and potential vote buying in the run-up to the election.
At least this was a free election
Trud has nothing negative to say about how the election was conducted:
“It can be considered a success that the elections were conducted democratically, as this was defined by Brussels as a test of Albania's readiness to continue on the path towards European integration. The preliminary assessments are generally that the election was peaceful and democratic, with no serious violations that could call the voting process into question.”
The future is not on the agenda
For young people in particular, four more years with Edi Rama are a bleak prospect, writes taz:
“While he is mainly interested in power and expensive infrastructure projects, he is not interested in the future of the young generation. Already, young people are leaving the country in droves; 360,000 people left in 2019 alone - almost 13 percent of the population. For them, the pressing problems are high unemployment and poor educational opportunities. When Rama barely made improvements at the universities even after the mass student protests of 2018, he made his priorities clear. Just as he does when he fights vehemently against the founding of trade unions.”