Sali Berisha

Biography

Sali Berisha is an Albanian politician and physician who was president of Albania from 1992 to 1997 and prime minister from 2005 to 2013. Born in Tropojë in the north of the country, he studied medicine at the University of Tirana, became a cardiologist and taught at the university's medical faculty. He was a member of the ruling Party of Labour during the communist period.

When the communist system began to break down in 1990 he became a founder and the first chairman of the Democratic Party, the country's first legal opposition party. After the party won the 1992 election, parliament elected him president. His second term was cut short by the collapse of Ponzi investment schemes from late 1996, which set off a nationwide uprising, and he resigned after his party lost that year's elections.

Berisha led the opposition for eight years before the Democrats returned to power in 2005, when he became prime minister. His governments faced the deadly Gërdec munitions explosion of 2008 and the violent opposition protests of January 2011. He stepped down as party leader after losing the 2013 election, and regained the chairmanship in 2022 after a split within the party.