Brussels – After more than 24 hours of vote counting, Albania’s parliamentary elections on 11 May 2025 have delivered not just a winner, but a clear victor. Prime Minister Edi Rama has pulled off the rare feat of securing a fourth consecutive term, with his Socialist Party continuing its unbroken hold on an absolute majority in parliament since 2013.
“This historic fourth mandate was expected, but it is still difficult to explain,” said Daniel Prroni, a researcher at the Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM), during an event organised by the European Policy Centre (EPC). One explanation is that the electoral law has been “repeatedly changed over the years by the two parties in power to serve their own interests.” Another lies in the way the ruling party has “instrumentalised the state, finding increasingly effective means to exert pressure on the public sector,” while the opposition has been “unable to reinvent itself and offer credible alternatives.”
With 94% of votes counted, according to the results released by the Central Election Commission, Rama’s Socialist Party secured more than half of the total vote (52,15%), while Sali Berisha’s Democratic Party stalled at 34,3%. This outcome means the current government will increase its presence in Parliament, winning 82 out of 140 seats—up 8 from the last elections in 2021. Smaller parties, which might have injected some fresh political momentum, have collectively secured just 6 seats.
Turnout stood at 41.37%—the lowest since the fall of the dictatorship in 1990—with 670,000 voters out of 2.25 million casting their ballots. For the first time in history, the Albanian diaspora was allowed to vote, contributing nearly 195,000 votes (out of 246,000 registered voters, around 79%), and broadly confirming the domestic result, with the Socialist Party securing 54,6% of the vote abroad.
The EU’s importance to Rama
The election was widely regarded as a key moment for Albania’s EU accession hopes, with Prime Minister Rama treating it as a test of public support for his pledge to bring the country into the European Union by 2030. At the fourth Accession Conference at ministerial level—held on 14 April 2025 in Luxembourg—he reaffirmed Tirana’s commitment “to fulfilling all the duties of the ambitious calendar, to close all negotiations by 2027.”
Moreover, Rama has positioned European policy as a cornerstone of his leadership, using it to bolster his credibility both internationally and domestically. After hosting the EU–Western Balkans Summit in December 2022, inaugurating the new campus of the College of Europe in 2023, and convening the Berlin Process Summit in 2024, Tirana is now preparing to host the sixth European Political Community Summit on 16 May.
“The EU featured prominently in Rama’s campaign, and the support Albania received from the EU integration process worked to his advantage,” said Tefta Kelmendi, Deputy Director for the Wider Europe programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). As Albanians “are interested in maintaining the momentum” to become a frontrunner in the EU accession process, “the potential is there—the country has administrative capacities.” However—while the country could be “highly advanced” by 2030—it must not be forget “the process is ultimately decided by the Member States,” that have the power to block progress “at any stage.”
Yet, significant obstacles could dampen his optimism. It is true that the EU integration process “can be largely associated with the Socialist Party for a large part of the population,” Kelmendi highlighted. Nevertheless, “this does not mean that the state of democracy is improving, given the lack of political plurality, challenges to the independence of anti-corruption agencies, and the absence of media transparency.”
The state of EU-Albania relations
Albania’s application for EU membership was submitted in April 2009. EU candidate status was granted in June 2014. In April 2018, the European Commission issued a recommendation to open accession negotiations with Tirana, as Albania and North Macedonia were grouped together under the so-called ‘package approach’, meaning that either both would advance together or neither would.
In March 2020, ministers for European affairs gave their political agreement to the opening of accession negotiations with both countries. However, due to deteriorating relations between North Macedonia and Bulgaria — and with the ‘package approach’ still in place — Tirana’s path towards EU accession negotiations also stalled for a year and a half. It was only on 19 July 2022 that accession conferences took place in Brussels.
Two years later, at the COREPER (Committee of Permanent Representatives of the EU) meeting on 25 September 2024, the 27 EU Member States positively assessed Tirana’s alignment with the opening benchmarks for the first cluster of chapters. Although EU ambassadors did not formally decide to split the Tirana–Skopje dossier, advancing Albania with negotiations while leaving North Macedonia behind represents, in effect, a break from this approach for the first time since 2018.
As of now, 16 negotiating chapters out of 33 are currently open. Cluster 1 – ‘Fundamentals’ was launched on 15 October 2024, Cluster 6 – ‘External Relations’ on 17 December 2024, and Cluster 2 – ‘Internal Market’ on 14 April 2025. In Tirana, the goal is clear: to conclude negotiations by 2027, with full membership in sight by 2030.
