Italian media: the Veliaj case puts Albanian justice under scrutiny, embarrassing Meloni

By Alessio Postiglione, for Il Riformista.

Albania represents a fundamental geopolitical chess piece for the Italy led by Giorgia Meloni, but rule-of-law problems in Tirana risk undermining our government’s strategy. The misstep — matured entirely within the Albanian Socialist Party, our prime minister’s privileged interlocutor — concerns the mayor of the capital, Erion Veliaj.

The story is a kind of local “Tangentopoli” that casts a shadow not only over corrupt phenomena, but also over the political use of justice and the abuse of security measures in the Balkan country. Last September 15, the Albanian High Court decided to uphold the “prison arrest” security measure for the mayor of Tirana. The decision disregarded an earlier ruling by the Albanian Constitutional Court, which had deemed Veliaj’s pre-trial detention “disproportionate” and his dismissal from the mayor’s post unconstitutional, depriving citizens of their democratically elected representative, officially still in office. Veliaj was assigned the security measure on February 10, 2025, by order of SPAK, the Special Prosecution against Corruption and Organized Crime.

This body, created with the support and funding of the European Union, constitutes one of the institutional pillars for approximation with the acquis communautaire, necessary for Tirana’s entry into the EU — a journey for which Italy has become the guarantor. Yet, beyond the corruption charges directed at the mayor (which will have to be examined in a regular judicial process), Veliaj remains deprived of personal liberty. What makes the picture peculiar is the reasoning presented by SPAK, which relied on the mayor’s non-registration in FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act), the American lobbyists’ registry. In fact, a law firm linked to the mayor had been registered in this registry to defend his cause in the United States, a country where Veliaj has always been very active.

The FARA invocation is nevertheless a procedural anomaly: it is an American bureaucratic obligation that does not constitute a criminal offense either in the US or in Albania. Not coincidentally, the Albanian Constitutional Court itself had condemned the disproportionate use of pre-trial detention. The case takes on delicate nuances both domestically and internationally. Veliaj, a key figure of the Socialist Party (PS) and former minister, was considered for years as the dolphin and natural successor of Prime Minister Edi Rama. Over time, however, relations between the two gradually deteriorated and turned into an open rivalry for leadership. Is this, then, a judicial abuse? A case of politicized justice, paradoxically carried out by the very Prosecution that was born to bring Albania closer to European standards? A warning in this direction has come directly from Brussels.

MEP Sandro Gozi, secretary general of the European Democratic Party (PDE/Renew Europe), has expressed strong concern. He declared that the prolonged detention raises “serious questions about the necessity and proportionality” of the measure and reminded Rama that “Albania deserves answers, an effective rule of law and respect for the democratic will, not judicial shortcuts.” It is not about determining Veliaj’s guilt or innocence, nor about halting the necessary fight against corruption, but about understanding the risks of silence on democratic guarantees in Tirana. If the anti-corruption institution acts through unclear detentions, instrumentalizes foreign administrative obligations like FARA and proves impervious even to the calls of the country’s own Constitutional Court, then the entire EU pre-accession model wavers. This exposes Italy to the risk of becoming the unconditional guarantor of a system that undermines the rule of law.