Albania After Communism: From 1990 Protests to NATO and Kosovo

The story of Albania after communism begins in December 1990, when student protests forced the authorities to allow other political parties. The shift to democracy and a market economy was difficult and included the crisis of 1997. The country then turned towards the West, joining NATO in 2009 and becoming an EU candidate in 2014. Over the same period, Kosovo went from losing its autonomy to declaring independence on 17 February 2008.

This is the eighth and final chapter of our guide to the history of Albania. It covers the years from 1990 to the present day.

The fall of the communist regime (1990–1991)

The one-party regime collapsed within a few months. On 8 December 1990, students at the Student City in Tirana took to the streets to demand political pluralism. On 11 December the ruling party allowed other parties to form, and on 12 December the first opposition party appeared: the Democratic Party.

The authorities had tried to stay in power through reform. In the summer of 1990, Ramiz Alia removed some of the old leadership, issued passports to people who had taken refuge in foreign embassies and promised to review the constitutional order. None of it was enough.

Over the winter, events gathered pace. In February 1991, students and lecturers went on hunger strike, demanding that the dictator's name be dropped from the name of the University of Tirana. Alia gave in, dismissed Prime Minister Adil Çarçani and appointed Fatos Nano in his place. On 20 February 1991, protesters pulled down the statue of Enver Hoxha in Tirana's Skanderbeg Square.

The first elections

Albania held its first multi-party elections on 31 March 1991. Of the 250 seats, the Party of Labour won 169 and the Democratic Party 75. In April, the law on the main constitutional provisions renamed the state the Republic of Albania, and on 30 April Ramiz Alia was elected president.

The country was still in turmoil. After a general strike, Fatos Nano's government resigned on 4 June 1991 and was replaced by a "Government of Stability" under Ylli Bufi. On 13 June, the Party of Labour of Albania was dissolved and re-founded as the Socialist Party of Albania.

Albania after communism: the move to a market economy (1992–1996)

The Democrats won the elections of 22 March 1992, taking 92 of the 140 seats to the Socialists' 38. Aleksandër Meksi became prime minister. Ramiz Alia resigned on 3 April, and on 9 April parliament elected Sali Berisha as president.

The new government pushed market reforms further. It freed prices and privatised housing and small businesses. The break-up of agricultural land had already begun under the Law "On Land" of July 1991. In the months right after the fall of communism, the country relied on emergency aid, mainly from Italy through Operation Pelican. Ties with Western institutions began in 1991 with agreements with the IMF, the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Politics remained tense. A draft constitution was rejected in a referendum on 6 November 1994. The elections of 26 May 1996 were marred by irregularities, and the opposition disputed the results and boycotted parliament.

The crisis of 1997

In 1997, Albania came close to civil war after the collapse of pyramid schemes into which a great many families had put their savings. Order returned thanks to a compromise between the parties and Operation Alba, an international mission led by Italy.

The first protests broke out in January 1997 in the south, and Vlorë became one of the main centres of unrest. On 9 March, with the OSCE mediating, the parties reached an agreement: they formed a coalition Government of National Reconciliation under Bashkim Fino and called early elections.

Operation Alba ran from April to August. It was a multinational force of about 7,000 troops under Italian command, operating under a UN mandate (Resolution 1101). In the early elections of 29 June 1997, the Socialists won around two thirds of the seats in parliament, and a referendum held the same day rejected a return of the monarchy.

The 1998 constitution and changes of government

Albania's current constitution was approved in a referendum on 22 November 1998 and proclaimed on 28 November. It made the country a parliamentary republic, with a single-chamber parliament of 140 members elected for four years, and a president elected by parliament for five.

In September 1998, the Democratic MP Azem Hajdari was murdered, raising tensions even further. From then on, power changed hands through the ballot box: the Socialists won a second term in 2001, the Democrats returned in 2005, and the Socialists came back in 2013.

The road to NATO and the European Union

Joining Euro-Atlantic structures became democratic Albania's main foreign-policy goal. The country moved from its first agreements in 1991 to NATO membership in 2009 and EU candidate status in 2014.

The reforms needed for a NATO invitation picked up speed after US President George W. Bush visited in June 2007. Albania joined the alliance in the year of its 60th anniversary. On the EU side, the decisive step was the 2016 judicial reform: in November 2016 the European Commission recommended opening negotiations, provided the vetting of judges made progress. Albania is currently negotiating its accession to the European Union.

Kosovo: from autonomy to independence

After Kosovo lost its autonomy in 1989, its Albanians went from peaceful resistance and a parallel state, through the war of 1998–1999, to UN administration and finally the declaration of independence on 17 February 2008.

Peaceful resistance in the 1990s

On 2 July 1990, delegates of the Assembly of Kosovo adopted the Constitutional Declaration of Kosovo as an equal unit within Yugoslavia. On 7 September, meeting in secret in Kaçanik, they adopted the Constitution of Kosovo and proclaimed it a republic. A referendum on independence followed in September 1991, though Serbia and Yugoslavia did not recognise it. In parallel elections in May 1992, Ibrahim Rugova was elected president of the Republic of Kosovo.

Under Rugova, Kosovo Albanians practised peaceful, passive resistance and built parallel, unofficial institutions, including schooling in Albanian. These were funded by a government in exile under Bujar Bukoshi, which collected contributions from the diaspora. Rugova's only agreement with Milošević, on Albanian-language education, was signed in September 1996 but stayed on paper.

The war of 1998–1999

The Kosovo War began in February 1998, with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA, UÇK) among the fighting forces. On 7 March 1998, during a Serbian attack on Prekaz, KLA co-founder Adem Jashari was killed along with most of his family. In early 1999, Serbian forces carried out mass killings of civilians, in Reçak and Rugova among other places, and this pushed the international community to step in.

At the Rambouillet conference in March 1999, the Albanian side accepted the proposed agreement and the Yugoslav side rejected it. From 24 March to 10 June 1999, NATO carried out 78 days of air strikes on Serbian military targets. More than 10,000 Albanians were killed or went missing during the war, and more than 850,000 became refugees.

UN administration and independence

Under the Kumanovo Agreement of 9 June 1999, Serbian forces withdrew. On 10 June, UN Security Council Resolution 1244 set up the UNMIK mission, and on 12 June NATO troops (KFOR) entered Kosovo. On 4 March 2002, Ibrahim Rugova was elected president within the provisional institutions under UN administration.

On 17 February 2008, the Assembly of Kosovo declared independence, with 109 of its 120 members voting in favour. The move followed the plan drawn up by UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari. Fatmir Sejdiu was president at the time and Hashim Thaçi prime minister. The Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo came into force on 15 June 2008. On 22 July 2010, the UN International Court of Justice found in an advisory opinion, by 10 votes to 4, that the declaration did not violate international law.

Previous chapter: Communist Albania.