The parliamentary elections of May 11, 2025 marked a structural turning point in Albania's political landscape. The Democratic Party (DP), after a long leadership crisis, internal clashes over control of the seal, and a campaign based more on rhetoric than on political offer, suffered its deepest defeat in three decades. At the same time, several new political formations emerged, "Mundësia", "Nisma Shqipëria Bëhet", and other center-right movements, which attracted a part of the disillusioned opposition electorate and achieved representation in the Assembly. The first two even managed to obtain a mandate as MPs.
That result produced strong tectonic movements. First, an undeserved support for the SP with 83 mandates. Edi Rama's undeserved (and uncontrolled) overpowering will necessarily accelerate reactionary processes, as the signs are already clearly visible. Second, it brought a traumatic loss, not simply numerical, for Sali Berisha. This result was apparently his final capitulation, as the holder of the opposition's exclusivity. At that time, this movement was not very noticeable, but as the days passed, this bitter truth for him stubbornly rose.
It didn't take long and already on the eve of the by-elections in 6 municipalities, including Tirana, the white flag of surrender was raised. After 34 years of existence, the first opposition party of the post-dictatorship, the Democratic Party, has no real candidates for the Tirana municipality (in the others the situation is blacker), and is close to a real powerlessness to compete even with dignity. The decision of the Democratic Party not to participate with its candidates in the local by-elections of November 9, including in Tirana, constitutes more than a tactical move: it signals a crisis of political legitimacy, organizational paralysis and loss of electoral trust.
The internal crisis of the Democratic Party culminated after the return of Sali Berisha to its leadership, in defiance of international sanctions and domestic institutions. The clash over control of the party, legally over the seal, politically over the leadership, destroyed internal coexistence, stripping the DP of its institutional character and turning it into a personalist formation.
In the May 11 elections, the DP no longer functioned as a political party, but as a structure of individual leadership, dependent on the rhetoric of opposition rather than on any political alternative. Consequently, its loss was more a systemic collapse than an electoral failure. Meanwhile, the new parties that emerged in recent years took advantage of the DP’s crisis of credibility, presenting themselves as an ethical and generational alternative.
The latest stance of the DP, not to field candidates in the November 9 elections and to support any “independent candidate”, must be interpreted beyond public justification.
Three clear analytical conclusions emerge: 1- avoidance (fear) of the real measurement of electoral weight; 2- preservation of the narrative of political victimization; and 3- leadership crisis that reflects a lack of candidates and leadership capacity. Practically a political formation in clinical death!
Meanwhile, a new generation of parties and movements is emerging in the opposition space that aim to reformat the opposition outside the SP-DP scheme. Their challenge is to maintain strategic autonomy in the face of the illusion of unity and the risk of co-option through symbolic offers from the DP.
Among the six municipalities where partial elections are held, Tirana remains the political center of the battle. A citizen candidate, independent and supported by new parties, (ONLY BY NEW PARTIES) could transform this race into a symbolic showdown between political generations. Even without a numerical victory, the race will have strategic value for restoring public trust and reconfiguring the opposition.
The Albanian political system has functioned on a duopoly of the SP and the DP, where the alternation in power has not produced a change in political culture. The weakening of the DP could bring about the end of the “controlled opposition” model and the birth of a “conscious opposition” that places institutional integrity and meritocracy at the center.
Thus, the DP is in the final stage of political delegitimization. Not competing in the November elections is practically not a protest, but a sign of surrender. New parties must maintain strategic independence and avoid co-option through the rhetoric of unification.
This is because the opposition in Albania is at the deepest point of its transition: between a party that has lost its historical function and a new generation that seeks to build a new political culture. The November 9 elections will not only determine who wins a few municipalities, but who earns the right to be considered a real opposition — one that competes for power, not one that survives on nostalgia.
