Albania, few chances for EU membership

16/06/2011 20:15

After the harsh critics launched by the article of “The Economist”, another gloomy panorama was
created in Brussels for Albania’s image. The events about the
Tirana mayoral race were the topic of an article for the
prestigious German newspaper “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, titled
“Tirana full of trash and without a Mayor”. The article analyses the
situation in our country, especially after May 8th local elections.

“Skenderbej Square, the center of Tirana, has turned into a giant construction site”, says the author Karl-Peter Schëarz.

“Its reconstruction is the main concern for the Mayor of Tirana, at the same time leader of the Socialist Party, Edi Rama, the man that pulled Tirana out of the post-communist apathy and turned it into one of most attractive cities in Balkan. Many difficulties were overcome and the project is finally being executed. But on the other hand, the end of the long political crisis doesn’t seem to end. This crisis started with accusations for election fraud in the Parliamentary Elections of 2009, and culminated with the disagreements for Tirana’s mayoral elections. Six weeks have passed, and it is not clear yet if Edi Rama has secured his fourth mandate or if the Democratic Party candidate, Lulzim Basha, will be the next mayor of Tirana”, says the article.

This article too mentions a fact that has been said in many other cases:

“The chances for Albania to receive the EU candidate status were not improved with these last elections. Many years might pass until EU will open its doors to this country. This will not happen before the political parties will agree to hold normal elections, to count the votes in time, to not intimidate the voters and to not try to manipulate the result. Meanwhile, the garbage around the city of Tirana is piling up”, the article adds.

“As long as it is unclear who will lead the city, the lower officials have stopped doing their work”, the article emphasizes.

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