Prime Ministers of Albania

Serbian President will visit Tirana on Friday and Saturday, where he will take part in the "Mini Schengen" Summit.
In front of the hotel where the President of Serbia is supposed to be staying, a banner was put up, with the inscription "Here comes a war criminal, disguised as a benefactor".

Albanian Parliamentary Commission of Laws, on November 22, 2019. Photo: Gjergj Erebara/BIRN

On Thursday, Mark Marku, Dean of the Department of Journalism and Communications in the University of Tirana, told MPs debating the laws in the parliament's Commission on Media and Education that "nobody in his right mind could possibly support such laws".

"The European perspective of the Western Balkans, which has been the basis of US engagement in the region for more than 20 years, has not changed and will not change", Matthew Palmer, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and US Special Representative for the Western Balkans said.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama speaking at his party headquarters on 30 June 2019. Photo: Gent Shkullaku/LSA

The Commission statement came after the final report of the Commission, expected to be published on Monday, was partially leaked to the Albanian media.

Some student activists, however, say they will not rest, seeing in the demand for change in education a thirst for broader societal change in Albania and in the way the country is run.

"Things won't change overnight," said Mema, a member of the left-wing pressure group Movement for the University.

Abanian Prime Minister Edi Rama at his party headquarters in June. Photo: Gent Shkullaku/LSA

However, Irfan Hysenbelliu, the owner of News 24, a local station based in Tirana, denied he was pressured by the government, while Rama's office called the allegations "fake news".

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama (left) and the now resigned Mayor of Shkodra Valdrin Pjetri, during the Socialist Party election campaign. Photo: Facebook

The Greek Foreign Ministry has condemned the destruction of a monument dedicated to early 20th-century warrior chief Thymios Liolis in the village of Krania in southern Albania.
"Provocations against the ethnic Greek minority and, ultimately, against Greek-Alabnian relations, must be immediately investigated," the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

Albania media microphones. Photo: BIRN

Albania is in the grips of a deep constitutional and institutional crisis driven by a deliberate plot to hijack the state in the service of vested interests, the country's president, Ilir Meta, tells Kathimerini in an interview.