Polls consistently show Albania to be the most pro-American country in Europe. Under Cold War-era dictator Enver Hoxha, Albania was the continent’s most Stalinist regime, famously breaking with the Soviet Union in 1961 following Soviet chairman Nikita Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization.
On Feb. 20, 1991, Albanians tore down Hoxha’s statue in central Tirana, marking the functional end of the communist regime. Albanians embraced not only democracy, but also free markets. On Apr. 9, 1992, Albanians overwhelmingly elected Sali Berisha, a cardiologist whose articles in favor of free speech, thought, and movement had won Albanian plaudits. They picked Berisha over a socialist who sought a Western European social democratic party. Despite the 1997 recession, by the end of Berisha’s tenure, per capita income had quadrupled to $800. He fell from power in 1997 but returned as prime minister in 2005. By the time that tenure ended in 2013, per capita income exceeded $4,400. Today, that figure has tripled.
In 2013, socialist party head Edi Rama took office. Obama administration officials embraced Rama and sang his praises. “Under your leadership, Albania is now a landmark in the Balkans and one of the most responsible actors in the region,” Obama said. “We appreciate your role and fully support you.” While U.S. ambassadors to democracies are supposed to be neutral, Donald Lu and Yuri Kim did not get the memo and grew increasingly partisan in favor of Rama. Despite growing frustration with U.S. Embassy partisanship, Albanians remain genuinely well-inclined toward the United States.
That is starting to change due to the Special Prosecution Office Against Organized Crime and Corruption. Shaped by George Soros-funded NGOs and funded during the first Trump and Biden administrations by the State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Justice Department, SPAK was meant to reduce political corruption, but instead became a weapon of the corrupt. Rama has used the group to selectively target his political opponents, harassing them with court processes and even imprisoning them or forcing their exile on spurious charges. SPAK victims include Berisha, former Deputy Prime Minister Arben Ahmetaj, and Tirana Mayor Erion Valiaj.
The cases have been so ridiculous that they are increasingly becoming a badge of honor. What unites each of SPAK’s victims is any challenge to Rama’s consolidation of power, his push into the drug economy, or exposure of his own questionable schemes. Ahmetaj, for example, was charged with corruption for a contract in which he played no role and derived no benefit.
Rama openly emulates Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a man who transformed initial election victories into a consolidated dictatorship and used his position of power to become a billionaire several times over. A man in the room in one of their meetings related how Erdoğan counseled Rama that winning the third election was crucial, then power was impossible to lose, and consolidated government control could keep neutered opposition and eviscerate civil society.
Ekrem İmamoğlu, the popular Istanbul mayor who Erdoğan imprisoned on false corruption charges rather than face in a free election, recently sent Veliaj a letter of solidarity as Rama consciously replicates the Erdoğan playbook. Rama’s weaponization of SPAK simply replicates Erdoğan’s false audits and incarcerations of his opponents.
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In January 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio temporarily froze SPAK funding as part of a broader review that ultimately ended USAID. Like a zombie risen from the dead, SPAK makes up the shortfall from the state budget to support its “independent” actions. SPAK is about as nonpartisan as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and operates with as much moral clarity as the dictator-whitewashing U.N. Human Rights Council.
Today, Rama and SPAK represent the overlap on the Venn diagram between Soros and Trump, as both appear to give Albania’s new dictator a pass for reasons of either ideology or investment. Rather than simply cut funding, the State Department should sanction SPAK judges, just as they do other international judges and special rapporteurs who prioritize political hatred over principle.
Michael Rubin is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential. He is the director of analysis at the Middle East Forum and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.