On March 13 last year, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama declared the “battle with the mountain” well and truly won, and that the newly built Murrizi Tunnel connecting the capital, Tirana, with Dibra to the northeast was ready.

The next day, in a long beige overcoat and white sneakers, Rama strode through the tunnel alongside Belinda Balluku, his deputy and Albania’s energy and infrastructure minister, ceremonially opening the tunnel to traffic two months before a parliamentary election.

The tunnel was good news for Denisa Vata, an MP for the opposition Democratic Party who regularly commutes to and from Tirana. But months after its official opening, she filmed water dripping from cracks in the tunnel ceiling and went public with concerns about its safety.

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