Europe's favorite despite corruption at home

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama is a welcome guest in Western capitals, in part because he is helping Europe with its refugee problem, but his opponents claim he has transformed Albania into an autocratic narco-state.

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Rama addresses the Summit for the Future in the UN General Assembly on September 22, Photo: REUTERS
Rama addresses the Summit for the Future in the UN General Assembly on September 22, Photo: REUTERS
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

These days it is being paraded around Europe as if it were a trophy.

At the January meeting of the Christian Social Union (CSU), a center-right party in Bavaria, Edi Rama, leader of the Socialist Party of Albania, was the chief guest. CSU President Markus Zoder used the opportunity to convince Albanians at the rally that his country "belongs to the EU".

In May, a smiling Rama stood next to German Vice President Robert Habek, both keynote speakers at the Charlemagne Prize in Aachen - where he spoke in the spirit of Thomas Mann about tolerance. Exchanging kisses with Italian Prime Minister Đorđa Meloni, who had the privilege of spending her summer with her family in Rama's villa on the Adriatic in 2023, has become almost routine.

Rama and Đorđa Meloni
Rama and Đorđa Meloniphoto: REUTERS

Edi Rama, 60, has been the prime minister of Albania, a candidate for accession to the European Union, for the last 11 years. He is a tall man with rather informal manners. He receives state guests in tracksuits, and journalists sometimes barefoot. As a late product of the socialist bourgeoisie, he is fluent in several languages, in addition to being a former national team basketball player and an internationally recognized visual artist. For many in the West, he is the cosmopolitan face of Albania.

Corruption at all levels

Even US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visited Tirana in February and had words of praise for "Eddie" - including his judicial reform. "Corrupt officials bear responsibility," Blinken said. "Members of organized crime go to prison and lose their assets. It's a very powerful process."

However, in the latest annual report from Blinken's State Department, the narrative is quite different. The report for the year 2023 for NATO member Albania reads: "Corruption is present in all branches and levels of government".

At all levels. That means: and at the very top. Rama's political opponents claim that the longtime prime minister has transformed the country into an autocracy steeped in drug money. That is, as they say: he tolerated the rise of organized crime. Rama rejects the accusations.

When "Spiegel" confronted the Prime Minister with these accusations, he called one night and tried to influence our report: he said that he considered the accusations unfounded, offensive and unfairly damaging the reputation of his country.

In June, an Italian journalist asked Rama how it was possible that one after another members of his closest circle, including various ministers, were arrested for corruption, and that he still remained in office? The Albanian Prime Minister coolly replied: "There are pigs in every forest."

Stabilizing the Balkans

From the perspective of the West, Rama acts as a stabilizing force in the Balkans. The model who negotiated with Meloni in particular aroused interest far beyond Italy. The plan envisages that the asylum requests of refugees caught in Italian territorial waters in the Mediterranean are processed on Albanian territory.

However, the more Rama's popularity grows outside the borders of Albania, the greater the anger in his immediate environment. Those closest to him, who know the most and have the most to lose, speak only on condition of anonymity. Others took to the streets. In July, angry protesters threw Molotov cocktails at Rama's offices in Tirana. The signs of arson have since been removed.

Rama with the Prime Ministers of Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia at the Strategic Forum in Bled, Slovenia at the beginning of September this year
Rama with the Prime Ministers of Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia at the Strategic Forum in Bled, Slovenia at the beginning of September this yearphoto: REUTERS

Other, older remains can still be found in the center of Tirana. For example, the pyramids, a structure inside which once stood a marble statue of Enver Hoxha, made by Edi Rama's father. Kristać Rama was an artist with close ties to the regime - as a member of the so-called Presidium of the National Assembly, he was among the signatories of the death sentence for the opposition poet Havzi Nel in 1988, who was then hanged.

The new, brighter present is symbolized by the glass and steel building. It houses the headquarters of SPAK, Albania's anti-corruption body. It was founded in 2019 at the insistence of the USA and the EU. The current head of administration is not among Rama's favorites. In the deciding vote, he probably benefited from the fact that the US ambassador insisted on personally overseeing the process to ensure there were no irregularities - a clear sign of distrust in the prime minister.

VIP prison with gym

The effect of SPAK so far looks like this: Rama's first minister of the interior was sentenced to three years and four months in prison for abuse of office - initially in connection with drug trafficking, and in the end for another misdemeanor. In September 2023, Rama's former Minister of the Environment was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for corruption. The deputy health minister was forced to resign due to abuse of office. His former boss ended up in prison in July 2024 for embezzling EU funds.

Albania now has VIP prisons, as recently reported by investigative platform BIRN. Detention centers are equipped with wards where socialist dignitaries who have fallen out of favor can serve their sentences with their own kitchen, shower and gym.

You have to look at the Rama phenomenon in a wider context. From the perspective of the EU, it is a business approach to the stabilization of the Western Balkans. Unlike Aleksandar Vučić in Serbia, for example, Rama is not considered anti-European and is much easier to work with. For this reason, the decision was made to turn a blind eye, said Zibas

However, those in Rama's immediate vicinity who face possible problems usually choose to leave the country. One of them is Arben Ahmetaj, who became Rama's Minister of Economy in 2013, then moved to the Ministry of Finance, and in 2021 became Deputy Prime Minister.

Political observers in Tirana consider Ahmetaj a long-term "treasurer" and a key figure in the prime minister's rule system. In July 2022, Rama fired him - reportedly because of the mass of incriminating evidence that had accumulated against Ahmetaj. For the prime minister, his longtime associate has become a threat.

A year later, the socialist-dominated parliament lifted Ahmetaj's immunity - with a convenient delay. Ahmetaj, who was accused of corruption and money laundering, had enough time to disappear. A few days later, SPAK published an international arrest warrant.

Ramin system

"Do you mind if I light a cigarette," asks Arben Ahmetaj during a meeting on the terrace of a cafe in the center of Lugano. Ahmetaj has traveled a lot and is used to luxury. Even as a young man, he was considered a rising star among Albanian socialists. At home they call him "Tiger". Currently, despite the international warrant, he enjoys exile in Lugano and hopes to be granted political asylum in Switzerland.

Ahmetaj refuses to comment on the accusations leveled at him at home. For example, is he behind the Albanian waste incinerator scandal - dubious projects that have largely gone unbuilt but cost Albanian taxpayers hundreds of millions of euros. According to independent journalists, the money ended up in the pockets of those with close ties to the government - and in the hands of media outlets sympathetic to them.

He doesn't even want to talk about the luxury trips he took alternately with his wife and lover, which were apparently financed with money from the scandal. Instead, he wants to talk about Eddie Rama.

All right. After 11 years in power, how much responsibility does Rama bear for the fact that Albania, despite billions in development aid from the West, is still considered one of the most corrupt countries in Europe?

Ahmetaj puts his cigar in the ashtray and about his relationship with Ram, whom he sometimes calls "Kim Jong Un", he says: "I am not ready to be the prime minister's sacrificial lamb. He took advantage of the judicial reform funded by the US and the EU. Now he is using the judicial system against his opponents and all those who get in his way in his lust for power."

The former deputy prime minister believes Rama's system is quietly tolerated in the West. "I have no idea why the Europeans don't want to see what's going on in Albania. They have excellent intelligence services that have detailed knowledge, especially about money laundering and organized crime."

Ahmetaj confirms the findings of investigators who claim that during Rama's rule, Albania became a drug center that thrives on drug trafficking.

"Drowning the country with cannabis from 2014 to 2017 was the Prime Minister's hidden economic agenda". The rise of organized crime that followed drastically changed Albania's economy and society, he says. "Rama believes that he is still in control of the criminal milieu, but he has long since been the one being controlled".

Are Europeans turning a blind eye?

"Ursula von der Leyen addresses him as 'dear Eddie', which is already indicative," says Frauke Zibas from the Brussels office of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. "You have to look at the Rama phenomenon in a broader context. From the perspective of the EU, it is a business approach to the stabilization of the Western Balkans. Unlike Aleksandar Vučić in Serbia, for example, Rama is not considered anti-European and it is much easier to work with him. For this reason, the is the decision to close one's eyes".

Rama and Fon der Lajen
photo: REUTERS

Is Rama getting rich at the expense of others? "From Brussels' perspective, it's not that important," says Zibas. "Albania's accession to the EU is not on the agenda for the near future anyway."

For his part, the Albanian prime minister told the Italian state television station RAI: ​​"If politics in Albania is poisoned by the mafia - I honestly don't see it." Rama says that Ahmetaj's claim that mafia bosses have free access to his cabinet is a lie made worse by the fact that "people usually believe lies more than they believe the truth".

Rama is worried about his country's reputation. "When it comes to EU membership, our patience is endless," said the prime minister in an interview with "Špigl" two years ago on the terrace of his villa on the Adriatic. Albania, as he says, was an isolated dictatorship, "the North Korea of ​​Europe, where in the late 1980s it was still dangerous to listen to the Beatles. That is why I claim that in absolute terms we have achieved more in these 30 years than any other country in Europe ."

Poverty, unemployment, immigration

Statistics tell a different story. According to data from the Albanian Institute of Statistics, more than a third of the former population of 3,3 million people have left the country since 1991. Average monthly salaries are around 750 euros. Almost a third of the youth who are still in the country are unemployed.

"Intertwining of political and media interests with the interests of criminals and oligarchs" - this is how Rama's system works, said a former member of the government who wished to remain anonymous. "All this is happening with the blessing of the USA and the EU. There is not a single public procurement that does not end up in his wider circle. Essentially, Rama has pushed the whole country into crime. Albania has become a perfect example of corruption, and yet, the cunning Rama continues succeeds in gaining recognition in the West."

Fatos Lubonja is one of those who agreed to publicly criticize the Prime Minister. The prominent writer is considered the conscience of the Albanian left. Lubonja is the son of Hodža's advisor who later fell out of favor with the dictator. He spent 17 years in prison, most of the time in labor camps such as the infamous Spač mining pit. Only in 1991, as one of the last political prisoners, was he released.

"I saw myself in young Edi Rama," says Lubonja. "We both wanted to get out of the shadow of our pro-regime fathers." However, Rama became the mayor of Tirana in 2000 and has been the prime minister since 2013. So many years in power have changed him, said Lubonja. "He became a bitter narcissist, a smart man without conviction, a Doctor Jekyll by day and Mister Hyde by night, a person who needed power as much as breathing."

Lubonja also complains that the West, especially left-of-center political parties in Europe, ignore the dark reality of Albania. "What crude oil is to other countries, drug dealers and their money are in Rama's Albania," said the former dissident. The last time they spoke, he says, he called the prime minister a "fraudster," although, as Lubonja points out, he probably doesn't care. "Because he's a crocodile—he's got a big mouth and no ears."

From cannabis to cocaine

Next year, Rama will run for a fourth term, and the chances of his re-election victory are good. "Ninety percent of municipalities are now in his hands, almost like in Russia," says investigative journalist Klodiana Lala. "As long as no one dares to say, 'I personally gave money to Eddie Rama,' nothing will happen. The Mafia's law of silence, of omerta, is in effect."

Several investigators confirmed to Italian state television RAI and Spiegel that contacts with organized crime existed at the highest levels of government. The initial cannabis trade has long since transformed into a cocaine business by the ton. Investigators believe Albanian criminal groups have established networks with the Calabrian 'Ndrangeta and cartels in Latin America.

So many years in power have changed him. He became an embittered narcissist, a smart man without convictions, Doctor Jekyll during the day and Mister Hyde at night, a person who needs power as much as breathing, Lubonja said.

Italian public prosecutor Francesco Mandoi, who temporarily served as Rama's anti-corruption commissioner, came to a devastating conclusion: "The drug lords have their people everywhere in the administration, in the institutions. Now they are able to make the government work according to their will." Mandoi says his warnings did not resonate at the highest levels of government.

Investments from Kushner and Grenel

Money from the Albanian drug mafia also manifests itself through the skyscrapers that have transformed Tirana's once gloomy landscape. Construction continues on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Richard Grenell, the former US special envoy for peace negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo, are planning major investments with Rama's blessing. Rama, Grenell and Trump have known and respected each other since the time when they tried to implement a plan to change the borders of Kosovo and Serbia under the eye of the European head of diplomacy.

Is Rama selling the "crown jewels" of his country in exchange for political support? Senior FBI agent Charles McGonigal, who was convicted, admitted to accepting bribes in Albania for government favors. He also admitted that he attended several meetings with Eddie Ram in government buildings. The prime minister denies any wrongdoing.

"McGonigal was paid by people from Rama's cabinet," claims Sali Berisha, who became the first democratically elected president of Albania in 1992 and the founder of the Democratic Party of Albania. He is sitting on the eighth floor of a residential building in the center of Tirana and is furious.

Berisha is under house arrest. He was accused of corruption and was banned from entering the US. The former president has not been allowed to leave his apartment for 200 days. He occasionally receives guests. A few minutes earlier, Ilir Meta, also a former president, came out. Now Berisha can finally say everything that is on his mind.

"I still clearly remember Hodža's dictatorship, and even then things were not as centralized as they are now under Ram," said Beriša, who is approaching his 80th birthday. "Albania is a kind of dictatorship, the first and only narco-state in Europe".

Berisha takes out his tablet and shows data that should prove that Edi Rama's brother, Olsi, is also involved in the drug trade. Olsi Rama denied the accusations. However, Berisha insists that the West ignores what is actually happening in Albania. Blindfolded, you're heading for disaster."

From Berisha's balcony on the eighth floor, the people on Mustafa-Matohiti Street in Tirana look like tiny dots. Every evening at 20 pm, his supporters gather - in honor of their hero who is under house arrest. Berisha briefly appears, briefly complains about Rama's "narco-dictatorship" and then withdraws again. After a few minutes, it's all over. Until next evening.

Edi Rama will survive that too.

Translation: NB

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