Edi Rama won again. Truth be told, few in Albania expected a different result, given the weakness and shattering of the oppositions. But the margin of victory went beyond the goal Rama himself wanted to achieve. The premier was aiming to win 80 of the 140 seats in Parliament. He won more than that and now has sufficient numbers to govern without any special difficulties or constraints.
This increases the weight of responsibility on his shoulders. Which are not only broad because of the socialist leader's imposing physical frame. Rama has been able to navigate these 12 years in government, having been mayor of Tirana for 11 years, radically transforming the capital into an international metropolis.
But now he has the most important challenge ahead of him: to conclude a path of modernization of his country to bring the eagle republic fully into the European and Western context.
Over the past 15 years Albania has made great strides to make people forget the tragic past of Henver Hoxha's very long dictatorship and subsequent civil war, which was then followed by years of confusion and uncertainty during which weak institutions gave way to criminal organizations and rampant corruption.
But things are changing. Since 2019, a special anti-corruption and anti-major organized crime prosecutor's office, SPAK, has been operating, working in cooperation with other European and American judicial and police institutions. A special relationship the SPAK has with the Italian Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office and the Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate.
Albania is renewing its legislation to gradually harmonize it with European legislation. It attracts many investors who provide financial oxygen to an economy that is now the most dynamic in the Western Balkans area. Solidly in NATO since 2009, Tirana is a reliable ally that plays an important role in security particularly in the Adriatic.
Rama cannot stop; on the contrary, he must make a decisive push for Albania to make the quantum leap that completes the work done so far.
And that means focusing on quality and not just quantity. Quality in services, in health, in infrastructure, in tourism, which p cannot be the sole driver of Albanian development. Rama must turn a spotlight on the construction boom to prevent it from turning out to be a dangerous speculative bubble that could burst, blowing up the construction of a modern market economy.
Rama is a pragmatic socialist and must address the problem of better distribution of wealth: social inequalities are widening. But the most urgent problem the premier must address is to curb the flight of young people from Albania, a hemorrhage of vital energy that goes abroad because wages are low here and because development policies are not in sight . Perhaps Albania would need an industrial policy that focuses not only on tourism and construction but also on industrial establishments related to the energy sector and agriculture. And then a lot of training is needed to retain and enhance the social capital represented by young people.
In short, in the next four years Rama will have a lot to do.And he will have to take into account the criticism coming from other political forces . Much to do will also have to be done by the parties that lost the elections, particularly the Democratic Party, which should shake off once and for all the cumbersome figure of Sali Berisha and focus on a new leadership class.
We wish Albania all the best for a future of great commitment and prosperity
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