Received fourth mandate/ Rama: I got into trouble with my colleagues, maybe I won because I'm not a good socialist

2025-05-24 09:16:00, Politikë CNA

Received fourth mandate/ Rama: I got into trouble with my colleagues, maybe I

During the interview with Richard Attias, the well-known organizer of FII (Future Investment Initiative), Rama spoke about his victory in the May 11 elections where he received a fourth term.

Rama did not spare the irony, saying that he has gotten into trouble with colleagues who ask him "how is it possible that you are a socialist and have won four mandates?"

Referring to this, Rama has stated that he probably wins because he is not a good socialist.

Excerpt from the interview

Richard Attias: Mr. Prime Minister, a few days ago, you were re-elected for a fourth consecutive term, which is historic for Albania. What will be your three main priorities for this term?

Prime Minister Edi Rama: First, I have to share with you that I got into a bit of trouble with my socialist colleagues, because when someone asked me, "how is it possible that you, a socialist, have won four mandates?"

Richard Attias: It happens, because you are a humanist.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: “What would you say to the others?” I said: “Listen, I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe I win, because I’m not a good socialist.” Right now, as we speak, the three main things for us are the EU, the EU, the EU. The window of opportunity has opened. It is very sad that we needed Putin to open this window of opportunity, because it was his aggression against Ukraine that woke everyone up and turned into action the always very clear message, but only in words, that one day, Europe will be united. I hope that the election of Donald Trump will also push Europe to turn the right things into action. If we succeed, then the four mandates will have been worth it.

Richard Attias: What role are women playing in Albania's new model?

Prime Minister Edi Rama: When we started the campaign, I wanted it to open with women, so the first half of the campaign was meetings with women. We started first with women and girls on the front lines, in our party, and then we expanded beyond that. One day – you know, sometimes when you campaign you can say things that are not irreproachable and that can spark discussions – so, one day I said, look, we are mobilizing women, because 56 percent of women and girls in Albania vote for us. This is a great force and, if we have women, we have first-time voters, then we only need half the men, because the other half are sycophants. This sparked a great debate.

“How can he say that the other half are sycophants?” Since, by nature, I am stubborn, I stood my ground and said to them: “Listen, it doesn’t matter that you are sycophants that you don’t vote for me, but that anyone who doesn’t understand that, at this moment, we need to unite to enter the EU, which is for all of us, socialists or democrats, is a sycophant. And, in the end, this brought an even greater number of women who voted for us and the men, too, were good, we reached a little more than half of them and won an overwhelming majority. Then, I explained to them that any smart man understands that, yes, women are the driving force. We have worked hard for this, because in this country, we have gone through two phases.

One, it was a long phase of several centuries, during which women were treated... The famous Kanun, has the bright side of hospitality, it also has a rather dark side for women, it considers women as one of the domestic animals, cattle. When communism came, it talked about emancipation, but what it did was force women out of the house, to work. But communism was against the feminine side, against beauty, it loved everything the same and women were presented as men, it was said that they were strong like men.

Even in propaganda paintings and photos, you never saw a beautiful woman. Then, when freedom came, we had a first wave of Miss Albania, Miss Tirana, Miss School, even Miss Kindergarten, because it was a kind of reaction to highlight the feminine side. However, that was not the right way either. When I took over the leadership of the Socialist Party, we started setting quotas, inviting women and girls to participate and that's how we changed everything and it's worth it, it's worth a lot./ CNA