When EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos stood next to Prime Minister Edi Rama in Tirana and declared that the 11 May elections in Albania were “free and fair”, her words clashed sharply with the detailed findings of the OSCE/ODIHR report. While the mission documented serious democratic distortions – systematic misuse of state resources, pressure on voters and public employees, media capture and an unlevel playing field – Brussels offered a reassuring slogan that risked sounding politically complicit. From suspicious “perfect” results in prison polling stations to a deeply polarised media landscape and a public administration drawn into campaigning, the picture is not one of a fully free vote, but of a controlled environment where the form of democracy hides structural constraints on the voter’s will. The editorial argues that such realities cannot honestly be branded “free and fair” without undermining the EU’s own standards, and that if Europe wants credibility in the Western Balkans, it must publicly acknowledge what its observers have already written: Albania holds elections, but still needs deep reform before those elections can truly guarantee the free will of its citizens.