Albanian Premier Edi Rama sees the NATO membership as the biggest guarantee the country has for its safety against the threat of war. It was exactly this argument Rama used to calm down the Albanian citizens after the Russian aggression against Ukraine.

But this was not the case at the time when Albania joined NATO under Sali Berisha’s tenure as Prime Minister, whereas Rama, then-leader of the opposition, despised it.

In his electoral campaign for the general election of 2013, which Rama’s Socialist Party would eventually win, he said Albanians do not need NATO, denigrating the Alliance.

He did the same thing concerning EU integration and for the candidate country status, which he deliberately blocked for years.

Today, in a war situation, Rama speaks highly of NATO and the achievement of Sali Berisha’s government, while continuing to stall the process for the EU integration.

Instead of trying and fulfilling the reforms to push ahead the integration agenda, Rama has chosen to challenge EU with the Open Balkans project which is basically increased cooperation with Serbia, which refused to join EU sanctions against Russia, with which it has strong ties.