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.

Rama is expected in Athens on Sunday to address a gathering of supporters and members of his party. The date of the visit marks the first anniversary of the arrest of Fredi Beleri, the ethnic Greek, jailed mayor-elect of Himare, who is now a candidate for Mitsotakis’ New Democracy in June’s European Parliament election.

In his interview, Mitsotakis underlined that the Albanian premier is not coming to Athens as a guest of the government, but is coming to speak to his compatriots.

“We will not ban the gathering; we will not facilitate it,” he said, adding that Beleri’s incarceration is a European, and not a bilateral, issue.

The Greek Foreign Ministry had informed the Albanian prime minister’s office that it would be preferable if the visit was conducted after the European elections.

Opposition parties have been more forthright in condemning Rama’s visit, highlighting the suy.

SYRIZA referred to it as a “provocative action, which highlights the absence of a coherent policy for the Western Balkans of the Mitsotakis government.”

PASOK’s foreign affairs spokesman, Dimitris Manzos, said Rama’s decision to address a pre-election is a “provocative move with obvious symbolism and clear messages both for the case of the elected mayor of Himare and his inclusion in the New Democracy ballot, as well as for Greek-Albanian relations as a whole.”