When charges of fraudulent elections are hurled in Eastern Europe, the critical period when violence can erupt is generally right after the elections. In Albania, in contrast, things have been on a slow burn since the June 28, 2009 elections. Officially the Democrats of Prime Minister Sali Berisha captured 48 percent of the vote to 44.3% won by the Socialists led by the Mayor of the capital city of Tirana, Edi Rama.
The international observers originally praised the election, but then came a tortuous and disputed counting process that delayed results till mid-July, feeding suspicions of fraud.
Now the opposition, having boycotted parliament for half a year, is staging demonstrations calling for new elections. The demonstrations degenerated into violence that left 3 dead and 50 injured, including 20 policemen. Each side interprets the violence differently. The Socialists accuse Berisha and his minister of interior Lulzim Basha of "politically orchestrating" the deaths and of using office.
Rama called for international support against the government and implicitly blamed the international community for giving Berisha a free pass."[The government] has transformed life in Albania today into a nightmare, starting with stolen elections that were generously forgiven by international observers, stealing everything and transforming the government of Albania into the most corrupt government." While the State prosecutor Ina Rama (no relation to Edi) wanted to charge 6 members of the national guard, Berisha gave the entire contingent a month's bonus.
Berisha and his supporters have responded that the violence was no less than an attempted coup by Rama who was staging a "Tunisian-style demonstration". The next step was to appoint a special inquiry commission when the results of such an inquiry are already apparent to the government: "This inquiry commission will examine all the evidence to reveal the truth about the coup d'etat staged January 21 with the aim of overthrowing the constitutional order,"
Both sides have called on their supporters to demonstrate; the opposition will demonstrate on Friday while the Prime Minister's supporters will stage an "anti-violence rally" the next day.
For the European Union the current Albanian government is a mixed bag.
On the positive side, it brought Albania into the NATO alliance. It has also reduced the country's debts and brought relative prosperity. The government has not provoked Serbia and this has somewhat stabilized the situation in the area following the recognition of Kosovo's independence from Serbia.
On the minus side, organized crime is still flourishing, the judiciary has not been reformed, giving rise to endemic corruption, nor is the media considered free. This has effectively blocked Albania's bid for acceptance into the European Union or even the lifting of visa requirements to the EU for Albanians.
The European Union has told both the Albanian government and the opposition that they should sort out the problems by themselves and not rely on the European Union. The union made an attempt to mediate between the two leaders last May in Strasbourg, but the efforts was a failure and therefore Sasha Butler, a spokeswoman for the European Union Enlargement Commissioner, said that a repetition of the mediation efforts was "not on the agenda."
The European Union has therefore contented itself with calls for calm and abstention from provocations and told both leaders that the best thing that they could to was to tackle corruption in their country rather than engaging in inflammatory rhetoric.