The center-right party in government in Greece, New Democracy, will apply at the next European elections Fredi Beleri, an Albanian politician of Greek ethnicity convicted in Albania for electoral crimes and currently in prison: his candidacy, harshly contested by the Albanian authorities, is creating a political case between Greece and Albania, which could also have a sequel before the European authorities.
On 14 May 2023 Beleri was elected mayor of Himare, a tourist resort on the Albanian coast, but two days earlier he had been arrested on charges of buying votes: the Albanian authorities prevented him from taking on the role of mayor and in March he was sentenced to two years in prison, which he is still serving. For the Greek ethnic minority in Albania and for the Greek government, which claims to support the rights of the minority, his conviction is politically motivated and is a demonstration of the persecution of citizens of Greek origins by the Albanian authorities.
Beleri’s probable election to the European Parliament (voting between 6 and 9 June) will most likely allow him to get out of prison (MEPs enjoy broad immunity) and will shift the issue between Greece and Albania in the context of Union: Albania has been a candidate for EU membership since 2018, but the Greek government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who is also the leader of New Democracy, he has already threatened to block any progress of the candidacy if “the rights of the Greek minority are not respected” in the country.
Complicating the issue are a past conviction of Beleri, who since 1995 served three years in prison in Greece for possession of weapons and belonging to a movement considered terrorist, and the political calculations of the majority party, New Democracy. According to many observers, Prime Minister Mitsotakis chose to nominate Beleri by pandering to the more nationalist part of the electorate, also to respond to the growth in the polls of the far-right parties, Greek Solution and Victory, an extremist Orthodox Christian party.
Prime Ministers Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Edi Rama in Tirana (AP Photo/Franc Zhurda)
Himare is a city about 250 kilometers south of Tirana and less than 100 from Greece, it has less than eight thousand inhabitants but in recent years it has been affected by great growth in the tourism sector. It hosts a large community of Greek ethnic groups, the second most represented ethnic group in Albania, which according to some estimates reaches 200 thousand people in the country (the total population is approximately 2.8 million).
Fredi Beleri attempted to become mayor for the first time in 2019, also in response to policies deemed repressive towards the Greek minority by the socialist mayor Jorgo Goro. His candidacy was rejected because Beleri had been convicted for political issues in the past: he was accused on several occasions (1994, 2005 and 2015) of being involved in a 1994 attack which caused the death of two Albanian soldiers, because he was considered close to Greek terrorist groups in Albania. Beleri has always declared himself innocent and the only conviction came in Greece for possession of weapons.
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In 2023 his candidacy was accepted, but two days before the vote he was arrested, after long investigations, for paying 40 thousand lek (just under 400 euros) to buy 8 votes. Beleri was arrested in the act of committing the crime: the man to whom he offered the money was actually an undercover policeman. Beleri won the elections anyway, with a minimum advantage of 19 votes over the outgoing mayor Goro. However, from prison he was unable to take the official oath and therefore never took office: Goro continued to exercise the functions of mayor.
Beleri’s lawyers contested the investigation and arrest procedures and denounced that one of the most important witnesses had been paid by the police. In March Beleri was sentenced to two years in prison and denounced what he calls a “political sentence” and a case built with “false evidence and bought witnesses”. The Greek community that supports him accuses the socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama of having organized a “political trap”. Meanwhile, rival Goro will also be in April he has been arrested, on corruption charges: he allegedly falsified documents to obtain public land to build a resort. The socialist Blerina Bala acts as interim mayor of the city: only after Beleri’s appeal process will new elections possibly be held.
Beleri’s case has also become a political issue in Greece, where the centre-right New Democracy party has made him a symbol of the alleged oppression of Greek minorities in Albania, in the context of growing patriotic and nationalist rhetoric. The Greek government put pressure on the Albanian government for Beleri’s release or at least for him to assume the position of mayor, pending a final sentence, but without obtaining results.
The political dispute also risks complicating Greece’s relations with other European Union countries and in particular with Germany: in December the cancel Olaf Scholz supported Albania’s entry into the European Union, despite opposition from Greece, which believed that Beleri’s case was a violation of community legal norms.