The Special Structure Against Corruption and Organised Crime, known to Albanians as SPAK, has for years been the most trusted institution in the country.
Created in 2019, during Edi Rama’s second Socialist Party government, under the auspices of the international community, it had one aim – to fight the chronic corruption that beset the highest echelons of Albania’s government.
Its mission, in vernacular terms, was to catch and put on trial the “big fish”. And it did, to a level that most Albanians could have not imagined.
Politicians formerly seen as “untouchable”, including former presidents and prime ministers, ministers and deputy prime ministers, key mayors and deputies of the ruling Socialist Party, were indicted and arrested. SPAK became by far the most popular institution in Albania.