By Ben Andoni
Albania is a country where inequality strikes at every moment and from every direction. Recent high-profile arrests and seizures by SPAK offer only one window into the vast inequality that plagues us. The staggering wealth of criminals (much of it coming from nothing) and officials—wealth that cannot be justified by their age, salaries, official benefits, legal taxes, or level of education—stares us in the face day after day.
To demand equality of opportunity here is as paradoxical as it was when a few from the wealthy classes sought understanding from the post–WWII communist regime. The “directorocracy” that the prime minister hit with a sweeping Rama-style purge reveals both irresponsibility and the stupefying wealth amassed by state administrators. Add to this the hollow luxury of showbiz figures and all manner of flashy scams flaunted in the media—especially the glamorous lives of young women cruising Tirana in supercars—it exposes inequality in a different form, highlighting how crime lives on deception, media glitz, and counterfeit displays of wealth.
This latter phenomenon is perhaps the most egregious: a grotesquely inflated model that mocks the sacrifices of generations of Albanians who strove for some sense of equality and democracy. As Thomas Piketty acknowledges in A Brief History of Equality, the journey to real equity is long—but while in other countries capital holders demand emancipatory reforms from power and grassroots struggle follows, here we see only anarchy, moral bankruptcy, and absence of civic engagement.
Injustice is everywhere. Equality is nowhere.
“The quest for ideal democracy—which is nothing else than a tendency towards political equality, a tendency towards equality in all its forms (social, economic, educational, cultural, political)—is a process still underway and far from complete,” writes Piketty.
Our concern for the country where we live is rooted in how wealth is distributed—and why the lives of ordinary people and the middle class have become so unbearably difficult. For this reason, mass emigration is just one symptom; widespread apathy and loss of hope have transformed one of Europe’s once most vital and youthful nations into one bent under the weight of pain.
Economists trace the core problem to the fiscal system; politicians emphasize reforms against informality and boost tourism or infrastructure. Yet year after year, these promises disappoint—with harsh realities in cities like Shkodër demonstrating the paradoxes. Meanwhile, Rama and his circle march steadily toward the European year 2030 dream, while the opposition has surrendered even in its narrative. This cynicism is evident in the new parliamentary deputies’ openly bleak, rough-road syntax.
Paradoxically, the economy is growing—and so is inequality. Statisticians understand well that GDP is not an absolute indicator of development. Recent Eurostat data raises the alarm even further: Albania leads Europe in the proportion of its population at risk of poverty and deep social exclusion. Around 42% of the population (2023 reference) —almost one million citizens—live in severe poverty, unable to meet at least 7 of 13 economic and social deprivation indicators: rent or credit payments, basic meals, minimal annual holidays, heating, even replacing old furniture, reports Altax.al. Compared to other Balkan countries: Montenegro (34.1%), North Macedonia (32.6%), Serbia (30%)—Albania urgently needs a radical rethinking of its economic and fiscal policies.
Experts note that we remain a textbook case of a fiscal system that often reinforces rather than reduces inequality. According to the “Tax Burden in Albania and the Western Balkans 2024” report, Albania has one of the most regressive tax structures in the region, with only modest impact on reducing poverty or inequality. Layer on a pervasive informality and labor-market insecurity—think of state employees sometimes not receiving agreed contracts or timely pay (e.g. controversies at Air Albania)—and inequality becomes the norm.
Then add the chaos of mismanagement and lack of priorities: the continuing struggle to secure drinking water—especially pressing amid climate change; overbuilding in Tirana and major cities eroding character; shrinking green spaces affecting daily health; inadequate sewage systems and wastewater processing; alarming air pollution; extreme noise levels at all hours; deforestation of rivers from inert dumping; and crumbling infrastructure. All these contribute to deep inequality.
Income inequality is visible across Eastern Europe, but Albania and Kosovo experience it at a far higher level. The democratic transition after communism was not uniform across countries, and while income inequality rose everywhere during the development of market economies, previous DP governance left legacies that successive Socialist governments amplified.
Surprisingly, countries with political elites and social issues—such as Bulgaria and Romania—display even more inequality than those, like Slovakia and the Czech Republic, which maintained relatively lower inequality. Literature cites multiple contributing factors here: economic development patterns, globalization, and the strength of welfare state institutions.
Our sociopolitical elite has behaved poorly for 35 years in redistributing property—a complex process shaped by historical context and political manipulation, leaving many legitimate owners dispossessed and in despair. Meanwhile, various self-styled elites exploited legal mistakes and loopholes to protect existing assets or acquire new ones during privatization—often at the expense of broader social benefit. We’ve seen how strategic maneuvering and political influence frequently led to corruption and nepotism, with many alleged elites profiting in ways public interest never did.
Yet Albania still faces persistent problems with property registration, overlapping land claims, and mismatches in land data. Solutions are often complicated, and the legacy of today’s elite resistance continues to shape the socio-economic landscape—a trend mirrored in other Balkan states in academic literature.
Today, Albanian (and more recently, Kosovar) political leadership must discard empty rhetoric and walk toward equality. But that demands a social state and progressive taxation—two principles the political class acts as though it doesn’t understand. They must also approach misrepresented wealthy individuals—especially those now under SPAK investigations—with a dose of humility, and reject their resistance to equality. What we see is a class showing no mercy, intertwined with two other classes, as an elite that has gripped everything in the country.