Sali Ram Berisha | |
---|---|
31st Prime Minister of Albania | |
In office 11 September 2005 – 15 September 2013 |
|
President |
Alfred Moisiu Bamir Topi Bujar Nishani |
Deputy |
Ilir Rusmali Gazmend Oketa Genc Pollo Ilir Meta Edmond Haxhinasto Myqerem Tafaj |
Preceded by | Fatos Nano |
Succeeded by | Edi Rama |
2nd President of Albania | |
In office 9 April 1992 – 24 July 1997 |
|
Prime Minister |
Vilson Ahmeti Aleksandër Meksi Bashkim Fino |
Preceded by | Ramiz Alia |
Succeeded by | Rexhep Meidani |
Founder and Leader of the Democratic Party of Albania | |
Personal details | |
Born |
Viçidol, Albania |
15 October 1944
Political party |
Party of Labour (1968-1991) Democratic Party (1991–present) |
Spouse(s) | Liri Ramaj |
Children | 2 |
Alma mater | University of Tirana |
Religion | Islam |
Signature |
Sali Ram Berisha , (Albanian pronunciation: [saˈli bɛˈɾiʃa]; born 15 October 1944) is an Albanian cardiologist and politician who served as the second President of Albania from 1992 to 1997 and Prime Minister from 2005 to 2013. He was also the leader of the Democratic Party of Albania twice, from 1991 to 1992 and then again from 1997 to 2013. To date, Berisha is the longest-serving democratically elected leader and the only President of Albania elected to a second term.
A former secretary of the committee of the Party of Labor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Tirana, he abandoned his career as a cardiologist and university professor to become the leader of the Democratic Party in the 1990s. From 1992, after the fall of communism, he served as the President of Albania until his government collapsed in 1997 in the wake of the collapse of notorious pyramid schemes. From 1997 to 2005, Albania was governed by the Socialist Party (PS) for two mandates, while he stayed in opposition.
In 2005, the Democratic Party won the general elections, and he became the Prime Minister after his coalition formed the new government. In 2009, he was re-elected Prime Minister, after the Democrats obtained a narrow win in the general elections but were forced into a coalition with the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI) through not winning enough seats on its own for the first time since the start of multi-party democracy in 1991. In 2013 Berisha's policies of endemic corruption, the selling of national infrastructure to foreign firms at bargain prices and political intimidation of his rivals proved to be very unpopular and he was unseated as Prime Minister by the leader of the Socialist Party, Edi Rama in a landslide election win for the Socialists.