Former President Bujar Nishani has passed away today in a hospital in Germany.

He was suffering from a bilateral pneumonia with respiratory insufficiency as a result of complications caused by the coronavirus. The former president passed away at the age of 55. Nishani was president for a 5-year term, while in this post he was elected from July 24, 2012 to July 24, 2017.

Bujar Nishani was born on September 29, 1964 in the city of Durrës. He completed his higher studies at the “Skënderbej” Military Academy in Tirana, while he completed his postgraduate studies in California, in the United States of America, for “Defense Resource Management”, in 1996. He studied Law at the Faculty of Law, at the University of Tirana, where he graduated as a lawyer in 2004.
He started his professional career as a lecturer at the Military Academy “Skënderbej” in 1988. Then, in 1993 he worked in the Directorate of Foreign Relations in the Ministry of Defense, continuing in 1994 in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Directorate of NATO Relations in 1996 in the Cabinet of the Ministery of Defense. In 1997 he returned to the free profession as President of the Euro-Atlantic Military Forum.

In 1991 Bujar Nishani joined the Democratic Party; in 2001 he was elected Secretary of the Democratic Party Branch for Tirana, in 2005, a member of the National Council of the Democratic Party and later a member of the Central Presidency of this party.
In July 2005, Mr. Nishani was elected MP in constituency 34, in Tirana as a representative of the Democratic Party.
From March 2007 to September 2009 he held the portfolio of Minister of Interior, from September 2009 to April 2011 he served as Minister of Justice; to return again in April 2011 as Minister of Interior, until June 2012, when the Albanian Parliament elected him to the post of Head of State in the fourth round with 73 votes in favor and 1 vote against. On July 24, 2012, Bujar Nishani was sworn in as the President of the Republic in the Albanian Parliament.

During his Presidency term, Nishani focused on the country’s European integration process and the global challenges affecting Albania, such as the immigrant crisis or the fight against Islamic extremism and radicalism. During most of the state visits abroad, Nishani’s policy was maximally oriented towards strengthening good neighborly relations, citing its support for Kosovo’s participation in all multilateral regional and international activities.

/Klara Ruci/