Sali Berisha may well reunite the struggling Democratic Party after Lulzim Basha’s chaotic leadership – but the way back to power will be rocky. By Altin Gjeta A few days ago, the centre-right, often self-proclaimed conservative-leaning, Democratic Party recalled, in a deeply divided mood, the 30 th anniversary of its first landslide victory in March 1992, which terminated the country’s brutal one-party communist dictatorship. The party had been established by an anti-communist students’ movement, intellectuals and other socially mixed forces to counter the communist Labour Party’s unbearable, iron-fisted rule, and lift Albania out of its extreme political, economic and social backwardness. Over the following three decades, the Democratic Party governed Albania for 13 years, led by the well-known cardiologist Sali Berisha, first as president of Albania, from 1992 to 1997, then for another two terms, as prime minister, from 2005 till 2013. That year, the party lost the le
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