Edi Rama, Prime Minister of Albania: “Albania’s foreign policy is 100 percent aligned with that of the EU” (September 2025, Slovenia). Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova, President of North Macedonia: “Currently, we are the only country in the Western Balkans with full, 100% alignment with the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy” (December 2025, Skopje).
By Seladin XEZAIRI
During the past year, the ruling Macedonian-Albanian political elite tried to write a new page in the recent history of North Macedonia. More or less like the one in 2006-2008, promoting developments that put the current Albanian rulers in a very difficult position in front of the electorate that will ask for their votes tomorrow. This is because this same elite that is hiding behind the VLEN slogan, in the next parliamentary elections, most likely premature, will not be able to count on the altruistic help of VMRO-DPMNE, as in the local elections that we left behind. Simply because without the Macedonian votes, this political group would hardly take Čair, Tetovo, but also Struga, without which VLEN had a role in the race for Kićovo or even Brvenica. I believe that the support of LVV and Albin Kurti, in the future, will also be on the decline. Also for these reasons:
- In July 2019, by order of President Stevo Pendarovski, General Besnik Emini assumed the position of commander of the First Infantry Brigade at the Joint Operational Command at the General Staff of the Army of North Macedonia. He replaced Major General Pavle Arsoski who, as we recall, had refused to use the new constitutional name of the state. Surprisingly, in June 2025, General Emini was dismissed by decree of Pendarovski’s successor, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova. If Emini’s appointment at that time marked proof of the advancement of Albanians in the institutions of the system, his dismissal was taken as evidence of the beginning of institutional degradation, of Albanians. It is learned that this move was also a bone of contention during an informal meeting between the Macedonian President and her Albanian counterpart, Bajram Begaj, in Sofia, Bulgaria. Therefore, there was no invitation for an official visit to Tirana.
- The “return of institutions” that the current Macedonian Prime Minister, Hristijan Mickoski, spoke about at the beginning of his term, continued with the same “elan” in almost all levers of the system, so today we are where we are: In the position of “neither meat nor fish”, articulated also through the new draft law on the representation of non-Macedonians in public and state administration that received a positive opinion from the Venice Commission! Precisely because of the lack of mechanisms that would put such a constitutional obligation into practice. And, at the end of the year we also have the “return of the name” of the country, in the political vocabulary of the Macedonian-Albanian rulers – the Republic of Macedonia, as if to deal a blow to the Prespa Agreement with Greece by which our country is called the Republic of North Macedonia! To challenge official Athens in this way would not mean creating an additional problem for the attempt to become, for us too, part of the European family, part of the EU?
III. In a tense political year, two statements by two important leaders of the Western Balkans – Edi Rama and Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova – revealed a different picture of the future of Albanians and Macedonians in an important process: that of European integration: The Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, declared in September of this year, at the 20th International Conference of the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia, that “Albania’s foreign policy has been 100 percent harmonized with the foreign policy of the European Union (EU) for a long time.”
“I think the main problem that Europe has is what direction it will take. Will it deepen on its path to becoming the united states of Europe or will it disintegrate into different pieces with everyone deciding whose satellite it will become because there is no chance of separating and leaving this big club and then having any glorious history other than becoming someone else’s satellite. This is the big question mark, the answer to which I do not have,” the Albanian prime minister said.
In contrast, Macedonian President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, in her annual speech to the Macedonian Parliament, boasted that “currently, we are the only country in the Western Balkans with full, 100% compliance with the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy”:
“The message I am sending, honorable members, today from this Assembly is that without clear guarantees from the EU and Bulgaria and without appropriate protective mechanisms, with another constitutional amendment, we risk emerging from this process just as Hemingway’s old man emerged from the sea: with a fish skeleton, with a stripped and eroded sovereignty and identity, national and cultural,” the Macedonian president said, without hinting that Bulgarians could soon be included in the Constitution, a prerequisite for unblocking EU membership negotiations.
- Nevzat Halili (1946), Abdurrahman Aliti ( (1945-2013), Arben Xhaferi (1948-2012), Rufi Osmani (1960), Imer Imeri (1942-2008) and Ali Ahmeti (1959), are politicians whose names cannot be overlooked in the recent history of Macedonia in general and of Albanians in particular – for civic, political and institutional equality. In this process, Ali Ahmeti is mentioned as a personality who has imposed an indelible political reality: the Ohrid Agreement, the official use of the Albanian language, proportional representation and the real division of power, are some of the achievements that cannot be undone, regardless of the election cycles. Despite all the criticism, Ahmeti remains a key actor in Albanian politics in Macedonia and perhaps one of those who can challenge the status quo in the future.
The refreshing of his party’s ranks at last week’s Congress will have its first test in the next elections. The same applies to his political opponents from the still unprofiled WLEN group. Because the parliamentarians have so far shown each party and each politician where they belong!