[4] After his father became a functionary of the Party of Labour of Albania, Berisha enjoyed a higher education and was then able to study medicine at the University of Tirana, graduating in 1967.

[citation needed] In 1978 he received a United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural (UNESCO) fellowship for nine months of advanced study and training in Paris.

[citation needed] In an interview for the Albanian Writers League newspaper published also in the international press, Berisha demanded that the remaining barriers to freedom of thought and expression be ended, that Albanians be granted the right to travel freely within the country and abroad, and that Albania abandon its isolationist foreign policy[clarification needed].

At an August 1990 meeting of the nation's intellectuals convened by President Ramiz Alia, Berisha urged the Albanian Party of Labor to abolish the third article of the communist constitution which sanctioned that the Party of Labor had the hegemony of the Power, to recognize the Human Rights Charter, the drafting of a new democratic constitution, and to remove all monuments of Stalin in the country.

[citation needed] In an article published in the Bashkimi newspaper on 17 September 1990, Berisha condemned what he termed the "cosmetic reforms" of the Alia regime, which had only served to aggravate unrest within the nation.

[citation needed] Albania opened towards the West: it signed the Partnership for Peace Agreement in 1994[6] and it became a member of the Council of Europe in 1995.

[7] Berisha also introduced Islam to the Albanian political scene, pursued re-Islamisation of the country (approximately 74% Sunni Muslims of Albania's population) to reverse decades of anti-religious policy under Communism.

[8][9] The collapse of the Ponzi schemes towards the end of 1996, into which Albanians allegedly invested $1 billion worth of life savings from 1994, recapped the crisis.

In the midst of the crisis that had escalated into a civil war, Sali Berisha was re-elected president for a second five-year term on 3 March 1997 by a parliament totally controlled by the Democratic Party.

[10][11] During the first ten days of March, the situation deteriorated, culminating in the desertion of large numbers of police and military, leaving their arsenals unlocked.

[citation needed] On 23 July 1997, a month after the DP lost the 1997 elections to the left coalition, Berisha stepped down as president and was replaced by the socialist Rexhep Meidani.

[citation needed] The murder of DP MP Azem Hajdari on 12 September 1998, triggered two days of violent protests in Tirana.

[14][15] After 72 hours, the Government restored order and reclaimed tanks and armored personnel carriers seized by DP supporters that were being held at the Democratic Party main offices in Tirana.

Parliament subsequently lifted Berisha's immunity due to his alleged role in what the government described as a coup d'état, but no charges were laid.

[18] On 3 July 2005, Sali Berisha led a coalition of five right center parties into the 2005 parliamentary elections, which eventually won a majority of 74 MPs from a total of 140.

Bush became the first U.S. president to visit Albania and repeated his staunch support for the independence of neighbouring Kosovo from Serbia: "At some point in time, sooner rather than later, you've got to say, enough is enough.

"[19] On 15 March 2008, Berisha faced the toughest challenge of his government when an ammunition dump exploded in the village of Gërdec near Tirana, killing 26 people and injuring over 100.

Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu resigned, and the press reported many irregularities at the blast site, operated by an Albanian company that deactivated the country's aging ammunition and then sold it for scrap.

The ongoing political crisis was one of the reasons for the EU's refusal to grant Albania official candidate status in late 2010.

He accused the then-President of having been part of the coup after relations had soured between the two, and embraced his perceived victim status to install his own 'yes man' in the office.

[37] As de facto leader, on 7 July 2022, he staged protests against the Albanian government over prices and wages in front of the Prime Minister's Office.

Berisha has strongly denied the allegations, and has publicly accused the prosecutors of a political attack, claiming that they were acting on the orders of Prime Minister Edi Rama.

Berisha has disputed the allegations, commenting that "It is my deep conviction that this declaration against me has been based entirely on misinformation that Mr. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has gotten from a corrupted lobby process involving Edi Rama and George Soros, who are close friends."

The prime minister's special envoy to the Western Balkans Stuart Peach said in a statement: This week, we took disruptive action against several Albanian individuals with well publicised and documented ties to criminality and corruption.

[55] It claims that: Since coming to power in March 1992, the Democratic Party (DP), led by President Berisha, has used a variety of means to promote itself and stifle the opposition.

There have been numerous violations of the right to association, peaceful assembly, freedom of speech and freedom of the press directed against the political opposition and other initiatives that express views critical of the state.In December 2022, Zylfie and Muharrem Haklaj filed a lawsuit against Berisha and 15 other people in the Special Prosecution Against Corruption and Organized Crime (Struktura e Posaçme Anti-Korrupsion, SPAK) for allegedly ordering and directing the murder of their four brothers Shkëlqim, Halil, Fatmir and Ylli Haklaj in Tropojë in the late 1990s and early 2000s and the attacks with shells and TNT against their tower in the village of Kërrnajë.