Sali Berisha

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Sali Berisha (2011)

Sali Berisha (born October 15, 1944 in Viçidol near Tropoja ) is an Albanian politician (PD) who has shaped the political landscape in Albania since the fall of the dictatorship in 1990/91. He was one of the founders and for many years chairman of the Democratic Party of Albania (PD) . He was also the first free election president of Albania .

Between 2005 and 2013 Sali Berisha was the 11th  Prime Minister of Albania . In 2009 he and his cabinet were confirmed in office. In the parliamentary elections on June 26, 2013, Berisha and his alliance for employment, prosperity and integration were clearly defeated by the challenger and former mayor of Tiranas Edi Rama ( PS ) and his alliance for a European Albania . A change of government took place. He then resigned from his post as prime minister and party leader of the Democrats to continue to work as an ordinary PD member in Kuvendi i Shqipërisë .

Life

Family and education

Sali Berisha was born as the son of Ram and Sheqere Berisha in the village of Viçidol near Tropoja in the mountainous northern Albania near the border with Kosovo . He comes from a poor and patriarchal home where his father's brother, Zeqir Berisha, was the head of the family. According to his own statements, his family was matriarchal, so that his mother and his six-year-old sister had a strong influence. When he was five years old, he was taught to read by this sister.

At the age of 14, Berisha left his home region to live in Tirana in the Konvikt of the Medical Technical Center between 1958 and 1962 . In his youth he was fascinated by Sigmund Freud . Reading was his greatest passion, he devoted a lot of time to the works of Fan Noli , Ernest Hemingway , Lasgush Poradeci , Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy and Gjergj Fishta . Nonetheless, he did not choose a literary career, but instead enrolled in a medical degree at the University of Tirana , which he successfully completed in 1967. During the 1970s, Berisha became known to a wide public in Albania for his research in the field of cardiology and was also appointed professor of this field at the University of Tirana.

In 1978 he received a nine-month scholarship from UNESCO for further studies in Paris . After its successful completion, he returned to Albania, where he carried out studies on hemodynamics , which received international recognition. At the same time he led the hemodynamics department of the Medical University Clinic in Tirana as a cardiologist for a short time . During the dictatorship he was party secretary of the medical faculty and doctor of the ruler Enver Hoxha .

In 1989 he received his doctorate from the University of Tirana.

He is married to Liri Berisha , a pediatrician. The two have a son and a daughter, Shkëlzen and Argita. Sali Berisha speaks English, French, Spanish and Russian.

Political career

Reception of then US President George W. Bush during his state visit in 2007 to Tirana

During the student riots in 1990, he and other university professors were sent by the state leadership to negotiate with the young demonstrators. Berisha joined forces with the students and on December 14, 1990, on the grounds of the University of Tirana, founded the Democratic Party (PD) , the first independent party in Albania . First he was a member of the party executive under the leadership of Azem Hajdari , and a few months later he was elected chairman.

After the PD could not win the first free elections in 1991 , it was more successful a year later and replaced the country's 50-year-old communist- socialist regime. In 1992 Berisha was elected Albania's first non-communist president after World War II . After democratic and economic reforms, which the international community initially judged to be successful, he and his party were involved in massive election fraud in 1996, which earned the PD a three-quarters majority in parliament . During the financial crisis that followed a few months later and the civil war-like unrest it triggered , he was forced to declare a state of emergency in the country at the beginning of 1997 . This did not calm the situation, however, and after the forced resignation of the government under Aleksandër Meksi , which took place much too late , Berisha appointed the socialist Bashkim Fino as prime minister of a broad-based transitional government. In mid-1997 the socialists won the new elections and Berisha announced his resignation.

Sali Berisha during the celebrations for the 100th anniversary of Albania's independence in November 2012

Even after the renewed election failure in 2001, Berisha remained leader of the opposition . From 1997 to 2005 he was a member of the Albanian Parliament . In the parliamentary elections in July 2005, he led his party to victory, with the help of American advisors who had also worked for George W. Bush . After the official election result was a long time coming, he became Prime Minister in September 2005 under a coalition between the PD, the Republican and other smaller parties.

In the parliamentary elections of June 2009, his party again achieved a majority and, along with others, has now formed a coalition with the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI) under the chairman of Ilir Meta .

In the elections of June 2013 , Berisha and his alliance no longer achieved a majority in parliament with only 56 out of 140 seats. The clear winner was the former mayor of Tirana and Chairman of the Socialist Party , Edi Rama , who after the resignation of Sali Berisha as since September 10, 2013 Prime Minister of the new government represents the country. The party alliance of his party achieved 84 seats in parliament. After the election defeat, Sali Berisha also resigned as chairman of the Democratic Party . However, he will continue to carry on as an ordinary PD member in Albanian politics.

In the summer of 2014 and in the spring of 2016, Berisha was suspended from the parliamentary sessions in Kuvendi i Shqipërisë for ten days because he insulted people and called for violations of applicable laws.

Political positions

Liri Berisha, Michelle Obama , Sali Berisha and Barack Obama in New York (2009)

The Democratic Party and he himself repeatedly advertise their “excellent government”, which Albania is said to have advanced economically. On September 20, 2011, Berisha was present at the close of NASDAQ , where he had to take a lot of criticism with his statement about Albania as a business location - especially from the opposition socialists: "Albania is open to companies. Our path is not a boulevard with flowers, but it is a path with hopes, a path of dreams that come true. "

The 2005 to 2013 in the opposition standing socialists under its Chairman Edi Rama was and hand, are fierce opponents to the government of Sali Berisha and his Democrats. Corruption, nepotism and the like are mutually accused.

During many party campaigns and when he is in public, Berisha often uses the Victory Sign .

criticism

Sali Berisha was often criticized during his reign as prime minister but also during his tenure as head of state at home and abroad. He is accused of patronage, nepotism and clientelism .

On March 15, 2008, 26 people died in an explosion near Tirana. The then Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu ( PR ) resigned from the Berisha cabinet. After three years, three main perpetrators were sentenced to ten years in prison. One of them was a senior officer in the Ministry of Defense.

On January 21, 2011 , over 20,000 people protested in the capital against the government led by Berisha and his Democratic Party. Four members of the opposition were shot dead by the Republican Guard when they demonstrated in front of the government building. Some people have been charged with responsible, but no judicial verdict has yet been issued.

literature

Web links

Commons : Sali Berisha  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Opposition wins election in Albania Socialist Edi Rama party wins majority / OSCE: Essentially free and fair. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . June 26, 2013, accessed September 2, 2013 .
  2. ↑ a b Kontrata broadcast on Agon Channel on December 3, 2013
  3. ^ Profile on the official government website. Archived from the original on September 19, 2013 ; accessed on September 2, 2013 .
  4. ↑ Lars Haefner: Elections . In: newsletter Albania . No. 13/14 , August 10, 2006, pp. 7th f .
  5. ↑ Frankfurter Allgemeine: Berisha resigned after losing the election
  6. ↑ Berisha përjashtohet nga Parlamenti. Top Channel , June 19, 2014, accessed June 20, 2014 (Albanian).
  7. ^ Albanian Parliament suspends ex-premier for his call to arms. In: Business Insider. Retrieved April 28, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Berisha: Kriza greke nuk ndikon në Shqipëri. Top Channel , September 21, 2011, accessed September 21, 2011 (Albanian).
personal data
SURNAME Berisha, Sali
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Berisha, Sali Ram (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Albanian politician
DATE OF BIRTH October 15, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Tropoja