Fredi Beleri

Beleri accuses Albanian PM of manipulating justice

Fredi Beleri, an ethnic Greek mayor-elect in southern Albania recently sentenced to two years in prison for vote-buying, and a candidate for the upcoming European Parliament elections with Greece's ruling New Democracy party, has accused Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama of manipulating justice to prevent him from assuming his duties and to undermine his candidacy.

Upcoming Athens visit by Albanian PM ‘unnecessary,’ Mitsotakis says

The upcoming visit of Edi Rama to Athens is an "unnecessary choice" on the part of the Albanian leader given that "there are issues in Greek-Albanian relations," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said.

"It's his right, a choice that seems rather superfluous to me, which is why I said it's an unnecessary choice," Mitsotakis told the ProtoThema.gr website.

EU: Bilateral disputes should not delay accession process

The European Commission hopes Northern Macedonia will begin accession talks with the EU the soonest possible and, referring to bilateral disputes between Northern Macedonia and Bulgaria, as well as Albania and Greece, reiterated its position that bilateral disputes should not delay the accession process.

Campaigning for Euro elections resumes after Easter break

After the Easter respite, party leaders resume their pre-election campaigns on Tuesday, as we enter the last stretch before the European Parliament elections.

On the diplomatic front, the government in Athens is preparing for Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' planned visit to Ankara next Monday, where he will be meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Greek MEP decries ‘baseless’ incarceration of Himare mayor-elect

The conviction by the Albanian authorities of Himare mayor-elect Fredi Beleri is "flimsy and baseless," the chairman of the EU-Albania Joint Parliamentary Stabilization and Association Committee and New Democracy MEP Manolis Kefalogiannis reiterated on Monday after visiting the jailed ethnic-Greek politician.

Double standards

New Democracy's decision to nominate Fredi Beleri, the imprisoned mayor of Himare, as a candidate for the European Parliament aims to highlight Albania's violation of the rule of law as a European concern. Government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis made this clear on Wednesday, while also condemning attempts to monopolize these "progressive" issues.

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