Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama at a NATO Summit in London, December 2019. Picture: EPA-EFE/NEIL HALL.
At a gathering on Thursday of his ruling Socialist Social gathering, Prime Minister Edi Rama unveiled a brand new authorities, altering some ministers’ positions, bringing some former ministers again and appointing a brand new AI Minister to deal with public procurements – to keep away from nepotism and conflicts of curiosity, he mentioned.
Rama’s Socialist Social gathering gained an unprecedented fourth time period in workplace with an enormous majority of 83 seats out of 140 normally elections in Might this yr.
Extra unexpectedly, Rama formally dismissed Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj, who was arrested in February on expenses of corruption and cash laundering and is anticipated to face trial quickly.
He thanked Veliaj for the work he has performed for Tirana during the last 12 years, and the performing mayor for work performed within the final seven months. “However at the moment we should make a political resolution, to pave the best way for elections for the mayor of Tirana,” he mentioned.
He then introduced his new candidate for the submit, Ogerta Manastirliu, former Minister of Training, including that she didn’t but knew of this resolution. “I’m sorry,” he mentioned, apologising to Manastirliu.
Rama has usually taken such choices solely, with out consulting celebration constructions, drawing robust criticism for what some contemplate an autocratic tendency.
The opposition Democratic Social gathering, DP, at its personal assembly on Wednesday, determined to not recognise the outcomes of the Might basic elections, however will nonetheless enter the brand new parliament.
“Tirana is being run by the Prime Minister and never by the Municipal Council,” Dorjan Teliti, a coordinator for financial points within the DP, mentioned.
“It’s ineffective to attend for choices from official places of work … when the solutions all the time come from a single workplace, away from the general public eye. Each motion, each challenge, each resolution, has a single signature,” Teliti claimed.
“This example clearly exhibits us that democracy has changed into a play, the place the actors change, however the director all the time stays the identical,” he added.
Whereas the choice to dismiss Veliaj caught many abruptly, the appointment of the brand new authorities didn’t. There aren’t any new names within the new cupboard and nearly all of the ministers are established figures throughout the celebration.
Rama additionally known as for adjustments to parliament, suggesting that 140 seats is likely to be too many and proposing 101 seats as a substitute. “Even fewer, whether it is doable,” he mentioned. He additionally mentioned the precise parliament constructing ought to change, “to be worthy of an EU candidate nation”.
