Displaying items by tag: Albania

Albania’s main religion is Islam. In the 1990s the country ended 46 years of communism and established a multiparty democracy. Successive governments have coped with high unemployment, corruption, organised crime networks, and shady political opponents and progressed with political and economic reforms, taking the first steps towards joining the EU. Albania is still one of the poorest countries in Europe, hampered by a large informal economy and inadequate energy and transportation infrastructures. The elections were held without any centre-right opposition. On 5 May Macedonia's parliament speaker asked President Tomislav Nikolić to recognise a majority of Social Democrats and ethnic Albanian members of parliament so they could form a new government, but he refused. Germany and the USA will recognise the election outcome even without the opposition’s participation. See