Taulant Balla

Taulant Balla (born 12 August 1977) is an Albanian politician currently serving as the Minister of State for Relations with the Parliament of Albania. He previously served as Minister of Internal Affairs from July 2023 to July 2024. He is a member of the Socialist Party of Albania, and has served as a Member of the Albanian Parliament (MP) representing Librazhd since the 2005 general election. Balla has also held senior roles within the party, including General Secretary and Parliamentary Group Leader.

Taulant Balla MP
Balla in 2023
Minister of State for Relations with Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office 30 July 2024
President	Bajram Begaj
Prime Minister	Edi Rama
Preceded by	Elisa Spiropali
Minister of Internal Affairs
In office 8 July 2023 (2023-07-08) – 30 July 2024
President	Bajram Begaj
Prime Minister	Edi Rama
Preceded by	Bledar Çuçi
Succeeded by	Ervin Hoxha
Member of Albanian Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office 3 July 2005
Prime Minister	Fatos Nano
Personal details
Born	(1977-08-12) 12 August 1977 (age 47) Lunik, Librazhd, PSR Albania
Political party	Socialist Party
Alma mater	Alexandru Ioan Cuza University
Signature

Political career

Political activities

He was first elected MP in the 2005 general election and then for two other legislatures successively as a member of the parliamentary group of the Socialist Party.^[1][2]

He is the political leader for the Socialist Party in Fier.^[3]

In 2020, Balla proposed a measure to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism and promise to fight anti-Jewish prejudice.^[4] The measure was accepted unanimously by the Parliament of Albania, and Albania became the first Muslim country to formally adopt the definition.^[4]

Plagiarism assertion

In October 2018, many Albanian public figures and politicians were alleged to have been part of a plagiarism scandal, involving their Masters and Ph.D. theses. The assertions were begun by Taulant Muka, a young epidemiologist educated in the Netherlands.^[5] The assertions sparked nationwide protests from students of public universities, leading to a vetting for all academic titles held by public figures, state officials, and politicians. The PhD thesis of Balla, entitled The Reform of Decision-Making System in the European Union, supervised by Professor George Poede at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iaşi, Romania, was named in the scandal.^[6][7] In 2019, following an accusation of plagiarism, the university forwarded the charge to the consultative body of the ministry of national education that investigates such accusations.^[8][9]

Personal life

Balla is married to Iris Pekmezi and has two children, a boy, Robin and a girl, Melani. Balla is a supporter of German football club Bayern Munich.^[10]