Translated from Albanian · Original article in Albanian →
As citizens continue to protest against the government, one of the best-known voices on the Balkans in the US Congress, Republican Joe Wilson, issued a strong statement on Saturday about the situation in Albania.
“I am following with great concern the escalating crisis in Albania, a NATO ally. The Albanian people deserve freedom, the rule of law and institutional accountability. The government must refrain from any violence against protesters. Young people deserve to have a voice in the future of their country,” Wilson wrote on X.
The message is clear and targeted: the warning about violence is addressed to the government, not to the protesters. When a US congressman calls the situation an “escalating crisis” and reminds the government that it must not raise a hand against citizens, it shows that Washington is seeing what Albanians have long been saying in the streets.
Wilson is not a peripheral name in American politics. He is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Armed Services Committee in the House of Representatives, co-chair of the Albania–US Friendship Group and, for years, one of Kosovo’s strongest supporters in Congress. It is precisely an old friend of Albanians who is raising his voice.
This statement does not come out of nowhere. A few months ago, Wilson filed an amendment in Congress requiring US intelligence agencies to examine the extent of drug trafficking in Albania and the government’s possible role in facilitating it, through a classified report to Congress. Last month, at a Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the Western Balkans, he stated that corruption, organised crime and electoral integrity in Albania have been affected by the government of Edi Rama, fuelling drug trafficking networks.
At that hearing Wilson also said he is inspired by the fact that the most communist country of the Cold War is free today, and that America wants Albania to succeed. But success is not built on a state where citizens who demand accountability face the fear of violence.
His call for young people carries particular weight. It is precisely young people who are leaving the country by the thousands, and it is they who are now taking to the squares to demand an Albania they can live in. When their voice is heard in the US Congress, the government can no longer hide the crisis behind propaganda.
The protest continues. And now, Washington is listening too.
