Vucic Merkel (Beta/Milan Obradovic)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has chosen Tirana as her last stop on a farewell tour of the Western Balkans, not only to give a symbolic boost to the Berlin Process, but also because of Prime Minister Edi Rama's support for the initiative, political analysts in Tirana have said.
Merkel will travel to Belgrade on Sept. 13 to meet with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic followed by a visit to Tirana the next day, where she will meet the Albanian prime minister, but also the heads of government of Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and North Macedonia.
Afrim Krasniqi of the Institute for Political Studies in the Albanian capital said in a Sept. 12 comment for BETA that the visit by Germany's leading politician mattered more for the Western Balkans as a whole, than Albania alone.
Ben Andoni, a political commentator in Tirana, told BETA that Prime Minister Rama was one of the leaders who supported certain elements of the Berlin Process, namely, "relations with Serbia and North Macedonia, a regional market and a Balkan railway platform...but Tirana is also a good place to find the angles that make the Serbia-Kosovo-Albania triangle, and Chancellor Merkel is playing carefully, for the future."
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