V-Dem Institute Report, DP: Albania officially in autocracy, Edi Rama responsible

The Democratic Party has reacted after the latest report by the "Varieties of Democracy Institute" which listed Albania as an electoral autocracy, that is, a country where free elections are not held.

The DP declares that today, our country has become a facade and has regressed in a way that is not befitting a NATO member country and candidate for EU integration.

The Blue Seat further adds that the culprit for Albania's degradation into an autocracy is Edi Rama and the model he has built where free voting does not exist and institutions have become his 'tools'.

The DP calls on Albanians to join the opposition protest on March 22.

DECLARATION:

The latest report by the "Varieties of Democracy Institute" gives Albania a serious international stigma: classification as an electoral autocracy, that is, a country where free elections are not held!

This is not political rhetoric: It is a scientific, independent and globally recognized assessment, which confirms what the Democratic Party has long emphasized, what seven international resolutions along with the OSCE-ODIHR report clearly affirm, and what Albanians have been trying to prove for a decade.

Democracy in Albania, based on the conclusions of the Swedish Institute, has been emptied of content and transformed into a facade.

It is a serious fact that, in the Balkan region, Albania ranks among the most problematic countries in terms of democracy, lagging behind the vast majority of its neighbors. While countries such as Kosovo, Croatia, Greece, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania are classified as electoral democracies, Albania falls into the category of autocracies, on par with Bosnia, Serbia and Turkey.

This is an unacceptable regression for a NATO member country and an aspirant to the European Union.

The report clearly highlights the reasons: elections that are neither free nor fair, extreme concentration of power, control over the judiciary, pressure on the media, and use of public administration for political purposes.

This is the model built by Edi Rama: a system where the vote exists, but does not decide; where institutions have names, but do not function; where the law is written, but is selectively implemented.

Albania today is a democracy on paper and an autocracy in practice.

This reality cannot be relativized or masked with propaganda. It has direct consequences for the future of the country, for European integration, and for citizens' trust in the state.

Edi Rama has put Albania on a collision course with national aspirations, on a dead end that cannot be resolved by propaganda or force. The only way out of this crossroads is to remove Edi Rama, an hour ago.

The fate of the country cannot be left in the hands of the Ayatollah of Tirana. The national protest of March 22 is a call to all Albanians, regardless of their beliefs, to stop the country's slide into the abyss from which it emerged on March 22, 1992.