Prime Minister Edi Rama is planning to hold a rally with Albanian immigrants living in Greece on November 3 at the Porto Palace Hotel in the northern port city of Thessaloniki.
This will be the second large rally that Rama holds in Greece this year, after a similar event in Athens in May. Both are part of an effort to engage the Albanian diaspora ahead of Albania's parliamentary elections in 2025.
"Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis had dismissed Rama's rally in Athens as "excessive", pointing to ongoing tensions between Greece and Albania, particularly over the imprisonment of Fredi Beleri, the ethnic Greek politician who had been elected mayor of Himara and now he is an MEP of Greece", writes the Greek newspaper Kathimerini.
Edi Rama's first meeting with the Albanian emigrants in Athens had several postponements, as the Greek authorities tried to stop the booking of the large stadium where the rally was to be held, which eventually gathered several thousand Albanians.