Republican Party of Albania - Ideology

Ideology

The Republican Party of Albania has adhered to the agenda of the American Republican Party and therefore its ideology is closely based on conservative, free market and many other right-wing policies. Although its policies are considered to be national conservative it also has several minor factions such as social conservatism and populism which have almost disappeared under the leadership of Fatmir Mediu which has seen more right-wing policies such as national conservatism emerge, as well as several pro-European and pro-NATO policies.

Though the party was originally founded as a conservative, Republican and generally anti-Communist and anti-Monarchist party which wanted reforms to speed up so democracy could be put in place more quickly, and founded as a alternative to the Democratic Party and the Socialist Party, it has usually been aligned with the centre-right Democratic Party due to the fact that it was bitterly opposed to the Socialists, who they regarded as communists hiding under a more moderate centre-left guise.

Although the party was initially Eurosceptic as it was part of the Eurosceptic group within the European Parliament, Alliance for Europe of the Nations, it has since then changed its stance on Europe and left the group in 2009 after adopting several pro-European and pro-NATO policies.