Trump’s election strategist failed to replace the Government in Albania
Albanian Prime Minister Eddie Rama secured an unprecedented fourth term in power after his socialist party won the parliamentary elections on Sunday with a slogan to bring the country in the EU at the end of the decade, showed an almost full census of votes on Tuesday.
It is a defeat for the Democratic Party of Sally Berisha, which was consulted in her campaign by Chris Lassivita, Donald Trump’s election strategist in 2024, which earlier this year stated that « with a thriving ademocracy and a true friendship with America, we can make Albania Great again. »
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With 94% of the Bulletins count, the socialist party (PS) of Rama received 52% of the votes, before the Second Democratic Party (DP) with 34%, according to official data from the Election Commission, although international observers have called into question the honesty of the elections.
The State Election Commission must announce the full results today.
If the result is confirmed, it will note the improvement over the last election when the PS receives 49%and give Ram a convenient majority to form a government. This will also allow him to continue working to fulfill his promise to bring Albania in the European Union until 2030, although many experts say that this period is optimistic.
Rama, who has been in power since 2013, has been a favorite for victory, backed in part by an influential network built for 12 years in power – a period of healthy economic growth and fragmented opposition. For the first time, the Albanians were also given the opportunity to vote abroad, with the activity there being 78%.
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But the scale of victory surprised some analysts who expected that corruption scandals and recent excitement would reduce Rama’s lead.
Instead, the categorical victory seems to extend the sense of predictability in Albania, unlike other Balkan countries such as Kosovo, Serbia and Bulgaria, where ruling parties have been confronted with political crises in the last year, Reuters commented.
« No one expected a qualified majority for a party. It’s like (Hungarian Prime Minister) Orban in his best days, » said political analyst Lutfi Dervishi. PS is about to win 82 seats in the 140-seater parliament, while PD will receive 51 seats, local Top Channel reported.
- Rama won the well -being of the West by receiving migrants from Italy and accommodating Afghans waiting for visa processing for the United States.
- But ordinary voters at home say that he rules the country in a system of personal patronage and has done a bit to eliminate corruption and unemployment.
- Rama denies this, and yet hundreds of thousands of Albanians have emigrated since he came to power, in search of better prospects abroad.
- Rama’s tumultuous third term was marked by riots for allegations of opposition repression and a series of corruption scandals.
An international election monitoring mission led by the Security and Cooperation Organization in Europe (OSCE) said there was « abuse of public resources and institutional power by the ruling party » during the campaign. She said there were « numerous reports of pressure on civil servants and other voters, as well as cases of intimidation. »
- « Here’s what the theft of votes in Albania looks like … Thanks to the drug’s government, » Lasivita wrote in X, deliberately spell out the name with a small ibuki and using some of the berish formulas and the claim that the elections were stolen.
- « Hiring Lassivit and think that you will become Trump is the same as hiring a Hollywood hairdresser and thinking that Brad Pitt is becoming Prime Minister Rama’s comment.
Sally Berisha was worshiped for years as « the father of the Albanian democracy », but then accused of corruption began to come to such criticism and the administration of President Joe Biden in 2021. It began the start of three years in the Democratic Party, which was the first to be at home and ended at the end of the home to return control of the party in 2024)
The Biden administration said Berisha was involved in « misappropriation of public funds and interference in public processes … for its own benefit and to enrich its political allies and family members at the expense of the Albanian public’s confidence in government institutions and public officials. » His daughter and son were declared a persona non grata in the United States, with then Secretary of State Anthony Blinken pointing to « significant corruption » as a reason for their ban on entering the country.
« In the last two years, Chris Lassivita has consulted two major political figures in two different countries … These two cases are Donald Trump and Sally Berisha, » Albania Democratic Party spokesman Alfred Lela told Politico. According to him, they both share « remarkably similar profiles … (they were) pursued by institutions – internal and international – investigated by the justice systems of their countries and have been presented as dangerous outsiders who need to be eliminated by policy at all costs. »
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« Lassivita publicly stated that Berish’s status did not prevent him – he inspired him. He joined a difficult party campaign trying to recover after being brought to the edge of political execution, » Lel explains.
Eddie Rama also sought the help of high -ranking Western councilors by hiring the Labor Party’s strategist Alistair Campbell in 2012 to help him build what he ultimately proved to be a convincing victory in the 2013 election in April, the prime minister told Bloomberg that he thought Trump was « good for everyone » July 2024 during the US election campaign « not only to make America again the great … (but) and to make Europe wake up and tighten. »
Rama also handed over one of the most lucrative development projects in the contemporary history of Trump’s son -in -law, Jared Kushner, including a 99 -year rent to Sazan Island – an abandoned former military intelligence base near Albania’s radiant south coast – and land in the Vyosa Delta.
