The Special Representative of the United State in the Western Balkans, Matthew Palmer held a virtual meeting today, with Albanian political leaders, where the topic of discussion were the April 25th parliamentary elections.
Can Mr. Palmer guarantee the fair progression of these elections? Analysts Andi Bushati and Baton Haxhiu expressed their take on the matter and went in-depth on Palmer’s meeting with the leaders.
Bushati started off by saying that Matthew Palmer can not guarantee free elections in Albania, as this can only be achieved by Albanians. According to Bushati, Palmer is part of a category of diplomats that in order to solve the problems and interests of his own country, he gives priority to the ones in government. This kind of diplomat cannot represent any kind of guarantee that the elections in Albania won’t be stolen, says Bushati.
“Palmer is amongst those politicians that in the always fragile rapport between stability and democracy, he chooses stability. This is also the case with Albania,” said analyst Bushati.
Baton Haxhiu agreed with the fact that the American diplomat cannot be a factor guaranteeing fair elections in Albania. However, he emphasized that the close rapport that US ambassadors and Matthew Palmer have shared with Rama isn’t a coincidence. According to Haxhiu, all ambassadors including Yuri Kim have been closer with Rama rather than Meta or Basha.
“They have caressed [Basha] so that he can contribute to a democratic electoral process and they have left [Meta] on the side, so that he can become unreliable in this electoral process, even though it is not a good thing for the president to be seen as unreliable during an electoral process,” concluded Haxhiu.
