Edi Rama

Edi Rama    (politician, basketball player)
Born	4 July, 1964
Nationality	Albanian
Albanian Prime Minister linked to organized crime (which is illegal to say in Albania)  Albania/Prime Minister  In office 15 September 2013 - Present  Tirana/Mayor In office 11 October 2000 - 25 July 2011  Albania/Minister of Culture,  Youth and Sports In office 1998 - 2000

Edi Rama (born Edvin Rama) is a former mayor of Tirana who became the 42nd Prime Minister of Albania. Rama has also been the chairman of the Socialist Party of Albania since 2005.

Before his election as Prime Minister, Rama held a number of other positions. He was appointed Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports in 1998, a position that he held until 2000.

He was first elected Mayor of Tirana in 2000, and was reelected in 2003 and 2007. In 2013, the coalition of center-left parties led by Edi Rama won the 2013 parliamentary election, defeating the center-right coalition of Democratic Party of Albania's incumbent Prime Minister, Sali Berisha. He was elected as prime minister for a second term in the 2017 election. Rama is one of the initiators of Mini Schengen Zone, an economic zone of the Western Balkans countries intended to guarantee “four freedoms”.

Domestic policy

Edi Rama adopts a neo-liberal economic policy, considered more right-wing than that of the governments of the Democratic Party of Albania. It reduces public spending and promotes public-private partnerships, a source of rapid enrichment for a circle of entrepreneurs close to power, in most sectors (tourism, higher education, health, public works, culture...). The International Monetary Fund (IMF), traditionally favorable to these policies, however, considered that the Albanian government was proceeding too quickly with privatizations and exposed the country to "significant fiscal risks".

While the country is in recession upon arrival, the growth rate approaches 4 percent in 2017 and 2018, the unemployment rate rises from 17.5 percent in 2014 to 11.5 percent in 2020. According to him, the improvement in the economic situation can be explained by the political stability of the country: "We are a country without a Senate, without unions, without a radical left and without comedians who play politics. "Nevertheless, salaries remain low and emigration has accelerated since 2014.

Drug trafficking has grown considerably, accounting for nearly a third of GDP in 2017. According to estimates by Italian customs, 753,000 cannabis plants were destroyed in 2016, compared to 46,000 in 2014. Such destruction would have affected only 10 percent of the cultivated area. The Minister of the Interior, Saimir Tahiri (in office from 2013 to 2017), has himself been blamed for his involvement in this traffic.

In 2018, he adopts a law, welcomed by the European Union, which provides for competition between universities and their openness to the market. The increase in tuition fees is causing discontent among students.

Involvement in Electoral Fraud

In a series of 16 audio tapes published online by the German transatlantic tabloid newspaper Bild, Rama and his cabinet members were recorded in conversations with police and members of organized crime ahead of the 2017 Parliamentary Elections. In one of the tapes Rama himself is recorded in a conversation with Arben Keshi, a local police official, asking if "the objective had been met". In another recording, cabinet member Damian Gjiknuri was heard offering Keshi to send "a van of problematic guys" who "should not be too exposed" but may be needed "just in case" for the election. In other tapes, current and former Socialist MPs were recorded giving instructions to Keshi and other local officials on bribing constituents with cash and intimidating them with threats. In other tapes published by Bild, former Mayor of Durrës Vangjush Dako, appointed by Rama was heard in conversations with members of drug trafficking and organized crime in connection to the 2017 Elections.

Censorship Law

In December 2019, the government led by Rama proposed changes in two laws regarding communications and information services in Albania, with focus on regulating the online media market, forcing them to register and giving authority to institutions controlled by the Parliament to fine online medias and journalists and block their contents.

Called by him as the 'anti-defamation' law, it gives to the Authority of Audiovisual Media in Albania the competences of fining journalists, and they can have their cases heard in court only after paying the AMA-imposed fine. Critics say this clause aims to decimate the finances of independent news outlets, whose limited funding would be likely to expire long before a court even hears the case.

Civic society and media organizations in Albania protested the changes in the law, considering them as censoring free-speech and expressing their concerns, because the drafted law didn't take in consideration several recommendations made by international actors like the EU Commissioner for Human Rights and OSCE. The draft received criticism from conservative politicians outside Albania. The Albanian Ombudsman also called the government on not approving the two anti-defamation draft laws, as they do not meet international standards.

Connections

"Lulzim Basha, leader of the Democratic Party linked Edi Rama to organised crime."

Personal Life

Edi Rama married actress Matilda Makoçi. The couple divorced in 1991.

Since 2010, Rama has been married to Linda Rama (née Basha), an economist and civil society activist. Mrs. Rama, is a graduate of the University of Tirana and holds a Master of Arts in Economy and is a Doctor of Sciences in Economy. Until 1998 she has worked in high levels of public administration including the Head of the National Privatization Agency. She has a long academic experience as a lecturer in International Finance at the University of Tirana and a lecturer of Public Policies in the European University of Tirana. She is the author of several scientific researches and publications in her field.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Munich Security Conference/2020	14 February 2020	16 February 2020	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 56th Munich Security Conference, in 2020, "welcomed an unprecedented number of high-ranking international decision-makers."
Munich Security Conference/2022	18 February 2022	20 February 2022	Germany Munich Bavaria	Slightly less than 1/3 of the 664 of the participants have pages here
Munich Security Conference/2023	17 February 2023	19 February 2023	Germany Munich Bavaria	Annual conference of mid-level functionaries from the military-industrial complex - politicians, propagandists and lobbyists. The real decisions are made by deep politicians behind the scenes, elsewhere.
Munich Security Conference/2024	16 February 2024	18 February 2024	Germany Munich Bavaria	Annual conference of mid-level functionaries from the military-industrial complex - politicians, propagandists and lobbyists - in their own bubble, far from the concerns of their subjects
WEF/Annual Meeting/2023	16 January 2023	20 January 2023	World Economic Forum Switzerland	The theme of the meeting was "Cooperation in a Fragmented World"

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