Greeks denounce Albanian trial of mayor-elect as political

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis last month said the case 'overshadows' relations with Albania [File: Nikolay Doichinov/AFP]

Athens, Greece – Greece is threatening to hold up Albanian progress towards European Union membership, even as the EU attempts to inject greater urgency into a stalled accession process for the Western Balkans.

The reason is the imprisonment on May 11 of an ethnic Greek mayoral candidate in Himare, a sleepy town of fewer than 10,000 votes on the Adriatic coast with a large ethnic Greek cohort.