Albania's progress towards joining the European Union depends on resolving the issue of imprisoned ethnic Greek Freddy Belleri, who was elected mayor of the Albanian city of Himare. This is what Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in an interview with the newspaper „Macedonia“.
Missotakis stressed that “Albania, through the illegal pre-trial detention of the elected mayor of Himara and ND candidate for the European Parliament Fredi Belleri, violates the values of governing a law removing his obvious right to be tried on basis of the presumption of innocence." “So this is not only a matter of bilateral relations, but above all of European relations. Since Albania's path to accession depends on respecting the fundamental rights of the Greek minority, it is inevitably linked to our country. “Not to advise or punish, but to see how clearly Albania is moving towards European values”, said the Prime Minister.
He stated that “problems in Greek-Albanian and European-Albanian relations, of course, remain”. And Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama cannot bypass the conditions for his country's accession to the EU. The first such condition is compliance with the rule of law, which is enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union, explained the head of government.
Belerisa was elected mayor of Himare on May 14, 2023. Two days before the municipal elections, he was arrested for bribing voters and sent to prison in Tirana, but remained on the list and won the elections in Himare with 50, 12% of the vote. Greece demanded the release of the politician from prison and his reinstatement as mayor. In April 2024, the ruling New Democracy party in Greece, led by Mitsotakis, nominated Belleri as one of the candidates for the European Parliament elections in June.