Sali Berisha elected Vice President of CDI as global center‑right bloc issues strong warning on Albania

Sali Berisha has been elected Vice President of the Centrist Democrat International (CDI), the world’s largest union of center‑right parties, representing 115 political forces worldwide. The decision came during the CDI General Assembly held in São Paulo, where the organization also adopted its fifth resolution on the political situation in Albania.

Why is this important: The appointment marks a significant symbolic victory for Berisha on the international stage, while the resolution approved by CDI delivers some of the strongest criticism to date from a global political body regarding Albania’s democratic backsliding, governance, and elections.

Context: In his address to member parties, Berisha expressed deep concern over what he called the government’s connections with drug cartels and the influence these networks exert on political and institutional appointments.

“The government is tightly linked to cartels and Albanian drug barons. The Prime Minister personally received senior leaders of the Sinaloa cartel – four Albanian brothers – and sent a special charter from Tirana to Aruba for a meeting with Albanian drug barons in Latin America. Drug traffickers appoint ministers, deputies appoint judges, and police chiefs.”

These concerns are echoed in the CDI resolution, which reads as a typical Democratic Party declaration. It highlights what it describes as severe democratic regression in Albania, concentration of power in the hands of the government, party‑state fusion, and the penetration of organized crime into public institutions.

The document also underscores serious irregularities in the May 11 elections, citing OSCE/ODIHR findings of widespread misuse of state resources, vote buying, intimidation, and selective justice – issues that it says undermined free and fair competition.

CDI’s 115 member parties call on the EU and the US to link Albania’s integration process with measurable progress in the rule of law, anti‑corruption efforts, and electoral integrity. The resolution also urges support for the creation of a technical government capable of ensuring credible elections.