Albania’s third largest party, the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI), elected Monika Kryemadhi as its new leader on July 5. Kryemadhi will be the first woman to lead a political party in Albania.

The LSI was founded by former parliament speaker Ilir Meta back in 2004. However, Meta stepped down from his role in the party recently after being elected Albania's new president. 

Kryemadhi, who previously served as vice president of the party, will replace Petrit Vasili who has led the LSI since Meta stepped down.

As well as carving out a new role after Meta’s long leadership of the party, Kryemadhi takes over at a time when the LSI is readjusting its relationship with Albania’s two largest parties, the Socialists and the Democrats. 

In her first address after being elected, Kryemadhi apologised for the LSI's previous coalition with the governing Socialist Party, news provider Albanian Daily News said.

The LSI was the Socialist Party’s coalition partner in the previous government, but recently the party decided not to renew the coalition due to "unbridgeable differences".

“We did not speak clearly when we found out that Albanians were badly governed and we did this in the name of the agreement with the Socialists,” Kryemadhi was cited as saying.

She also accused the Socialists of not doing enough in the fight against drugs and of suppressing media that revealed crime and corruption cases involving oligarchs close to Prime Minister Edi Rama.

LSI was placed third in the June 25 general election, winning 18 seats in the 140-seat parliament.

Albania has improved the status of women and promoted gender equality in recent years, according to a UNDP report. However, female participation in politics remains relatively low, and only around 20% of Albanian MPs are women. 

Albania is part of a region where the fall of communism has been followed by successive backlashes against feminism, on top of persistent social and cultural issues holding back businesswomen and female entrepreneurs.