Edi Rama

Edi Rama (2020)

Edi Rama (* 4. July 1964 in Tirana as Edvin Rama ) is an Albanian politicians and artists . Since September 10, 2013 he has been the 12th Prime Minister of Albania . He was confirmed in his office on June 25, 2017 and has been in his second cabinet since September 2017 . On September 17, 2021, he was elected Prime Minister for the third time in a row. He has also been chairman of the Socialist Party of Albania (PS) since October 2005 . Between 2000 and 2011 he was mayor of Tirana.

Life

Athletic career and early artistic and political activities

Edi Rama was born to Kristaq Rama, a sculptor from Durrës , and the medical doctor Aneta Rama (née Koleka). As a teenager he played for the Dinamo basketball club and was nominated for the national team in the late 1980s . At the time of the fall of the Stalinist dictatorship , he worked as a lecturer at the Academy of Arts , where he had already been trained as an academic painter. At that time he married Matilda Makoci, with whom he has a son. In 1994 the two divorced and Edi Rama emigrated to France . There he took part - mainly in Paris - together with his friend Anri Sala in various art exhibitions.

Rama took an active part in the first democracy movements in Albania in the early 1990s. He criticized the ruling Democratic Party under Sali Berisha for corruption and began his career as an internationally recognized artist. In 1998, Rama was back in Albania for his father's funeral. The new socialist prime minister Fatos Nano appointed him minister for culture, youth and sport in the government.

Mayor of Tirana

In October 2000 he moved into the Tirana City Hall as the new mayor . As an independent candidate, with the support of the Socialist Party, he won 57% of the vote. Since taking over the office of mayor, he had illegally erected buildings such as kiosks and nightclubs torn down and took measures to dispose of rubbish and put greenery on them. He was honored by the United Nations for his “Clean and Green” project . In the fall of 2003, Rama joined the Socialist Party. He ran unsuccessfully against the incumbent Fatos Nano as party chairman. He was only elected to this office in October 2005 after Nano withdrew from politics due to the defeat of the socialists in the elections that summer.

On December 28, 2003, Rama was re-elected mayor with 59% of the vote. Since then, one focus of his activities has been the preparation of an urban plan for Tirana, the population of which had more than doubled since 1990. In February 2007 he was again confirmed in office with 56% of the votes. In the fall of 2004, 35,000 participants in the Internet community City Mayors voted Rama World Mayor 2004 .

A meeting between socialists: Edi Rama in 2011 on a visit to Athens with the then Prime Minister of Greece, Giorgos Andrea Papandreou

In the 2011 local elections , Edi Rama lost just 95 votes behind against Democratic candidate Lulzim Basha . After almost eleven years, his career as Lord Mayor of the Albanian capital ended.

First term as Prime Minister (2013-2017)

For the first time in his political career, Edi Rama ran in the parliamentary elections in 2013 as a candidate of the Socialist Party for Qark Vlora in order to be able to move into parliament as a member of parliament . In the run-up to the parliamentary elections in 2013, the social democratic LSI left the ruling coalition with the Democrats that had been formed since 2009 in order to switch to the Socialists. The Alliance for a European Albania , a coalition with the LSI among others, achieved a clear majority. Edi Rama took over the office of the outgoing Prime Minister Sali Berisha. On September 10, 2013, Edi Rama officially became Prime Minister of Albania. His cabinet has the highest female figure that an Albanian government has ever had. And with an average age of 43 when taking office, the cabinet is the youngest in Albania's history.

In the first few days of his tenure, some government decisions were made. The first was a ban on imports of rubbish . This was followed, among other things, by the redistribution of government tasks to the various ministries. Some ministries were amalgamated, others were split up, and some were newly established. Rama gave the seat of government in Tirana a new look inside so as not to have to work in the ambience of his rival predecessor Sali Berisha.

In the first few weeks of his term in office, Rama made various state visits to Western Europe, the USA and the Balkans. His first state visit came just two days after he was sworn in as Prime Minister in Kosovo , where he met his counterpart Hashim Thaçi . He then went to Brussels on September 16 to meet representatives and presidents of the EU. The most recent visits to the UN in New York followed on September 21, October 26 with the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Prizren , Kosovo, on November 5, 2013, he visited Macedonia , where, in addition to high government representatives, he also chaired the Albanian parties met, and on November 14th he was in Podgorica to visit the Montenegrin Prime Minister. He also visited Greece, Croatia and especially Italy in the early stages of his term in office.

On November 15, 2013, Edi Rama stated at a media conference that it was impossible for Albania to take up Syrian chemical weapons and destroy them. This was preceded by numerous protests in many cities in Albania and by huge opposition on social networks. Thus, Rama rejected a corresponding request from the United States, although it was expected that Albania, as a close partner of the United States, would agree. The crowd in front of the seat of government cheered, according to Rama, after demonstrating for 48 hours against the importation of dangerous chemical weapons.

Second term as Prime Minister (2017-2021)

In the 2017 parliamentary elections , the Partia Socialiste won 48.34 percent of the vote, which was the best result in the party's history. This made a government coalition with other parties superfluous, and the socialists were able to form a single government again for a long time. Edi Rama presented his government proposal to parliament on September 9, 2017 , which was approved by a majority of the MPs. On September 13, the new government cabinet was finally sworn in by the president. There are many newcomers to the government in the new cabinet and with seven women, for the first time in Albania's history, 50 percent of women are women.

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The second term of the Rama government began immediately with a few high profile events. As mentioned Erion Brace ( PS ), Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission of Economy, on September 26, 2017 during a joint meeting of the faction and members of the government of the Socialists a serious error in the procedure of adoption of the new budget. For example, the government bypassed the commission and set the budget approval directly as an item on the agenda for September 28, 2017, without first having it reviewed by the economic commission.

The next day, September 27, 2017, the news portal Hashtag.al published a report by the supreme audit authority Kontrolli i Lartë i Shtetit , according to which the Albanian government was accused of irregularities in relation to marketing products for 2016. For example, she supported the Foundation of the Biennale di Venezia , where Edi Rama occasionally exhibits private works, with government funds amounting to around 500,000 US dollars .

For the parliamentary session on September 28, 2017, Albania's public broadcaster Radio Televizioni Shqiptar (RTSH) demanded a fee from private television broadcasters for the live broadcast of the plenary session. Prime Minister Edi Rama explained this with the future need for a “parliamentary channel”, which would, however, prevent private broadcasters (and thus journalists) from entering the parliamentary hall. The Albanian media and opposition politicians sharply criticized the Albanian government's actions and spoke of "censorship".

Third term as Prime Minister (2021–)

In the parliamentary elections in April 2021 , the socialists again won an absolute majority with a record result of 48.67 percent of the vote. On September 17, 2021, Rama was elected Prime Minister for the third time in a row. In parliament he received 77 votes out of 140. 53 MPs voted against him, one abstained. In Rama's government, twelve of the 17 ministries and state secretaries are held by women. Foreign minister remains Olta Xhaçka , who has held the office since January 2021. In his government statement, Rama committed himself to three priorities: infrastructure projects, combating the corona pandemic and repairing the damage caused by the earthquake in November 2019 .

Artist

Edi Rama works mainly in small format on paper. To do this, he uses ink , felt pen and crayons in his calendar to make floral-organic, mostly colorful drawings. He records his thoughts and inspirations in colorful abstraction on thousands of calendar sheets. He himself describes this as an outbreak from his deepest interior, which he tries to give expression. These daily drawings form a visual diary of personal and statesmanlike everyday life and world events, but without commenting on the content of political events. Edi Rama's studio and office are one. Edi Rama's works have been exhibited internationally and are located in the Tirana National Gallery and the Osten Museum of Drawing in Skopje . As an artist, he took part in important panel discussions, including at the Tate Gallery of Modern Art .

Private

Rama was given the first name Edvin when he was born and had it changed to Edi by the registry office in November 2002 .

He has been married to Linda Rama (née Basha) since 2010. The couple have one child, Zaho Rama (born 2014). He also has a son from his first marriage, Gregor Rama.

He declared in 2004 that he did not practice faith and that people could not judge whether a god existed. In 2014, however, he told the media that he was Catholic . His grandmother baptized him in 1964 and his father was also a Catholic.

Awards

• 2017: Commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur (C. LH)

Exhibitions

• 2015: Edi Rama. Les Fleurs du Calendrier - calendar flowers , Galerie Michael Schultz , Berlin
• 2014: Tell me nothing from the horse , Galerie Michael Schultz, Berlin
• 2004: utopia station: on the way to porto alegre , Haus der Kunst Munich , Munich
• 2003: Blood & Honey - Future is in the Balkans , Essl Collection , Klosterneuburg
• 2003: 50th Biennale di Venezia , Venice
• 1999: 48th Biennale di Venezia , Venice
• 1994: 22 ° Bienal de São Paulo , São Paulo
• 1993: Europeans , Grazer Kunstverein , Graz

Book publications

• Reflections. with Ardian Klosi 1991
• Paintings . 2009
• Kurban. Botimet Dudaj, Tirana 2011 Romanian translation: În culisele puterii. Corint, Bucharest 2014.

literature

• Michael Schultz (Ed.): Edi Rama. Les Fleurs du Calendrier - calendar flowers . Michael Schultz Gallery, Berlin 2015.
• Anri Sala (Ed.): Edi Rama . JRP, Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-03764-322-8 .
• Beat Bieri: Tirana in color . Velvet, Lucerne 2003.

Web links

Commons : Edi Rama  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Edi Rama's blog with speeches, lectures, pictures, videos and books (Albanian)
• Profile of Edi Rama, World Mayor 2004
• Examples of his works of art on the website of the Michael Schultz gallery
• Architecture + Art: Crossover and Collaboration - Edi Rama and Anri Sala, video of the discussion in the Tate Museum
• Interview (December 2015) with the Freitag
• Article in Newsweek

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Documentaries / Edvin apo Edi? Yes emri i vërtetë i kryeministrit Rama. In: Mapo . May 20, 2016, accessed July 27, 2020 (Albanian). 
2. ↑ Jane Kramer: Painting the Town - How Edi Rama Reinvented Albanian Politics . In: Art in America . June 27, 2005 ( PDF ). PDF ( Memento of the original from December 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Edi Rama in the Munzinger archive , accessed on July 4, 2011 ( beginning of the article freely available)
4. ↑ Edi tidies up. Tagesspiegel , November 28, 2002, accessed May 3, 2013 . 
5. ↑ KQZ: Lulzim Basha kryetar i Bashkisë së Tiranës (KQZ: Lulzim Basha President of Bashkia Tirana). peshku pa ujë, June 23, 2011, accessed May 3, 2013 (Albanian). 
6. ↑ Listat e PS, Rama i pari në Vlorë? (Lists of the PS, Rama the first in Vlora?). Top Channel , May 2, 2013, accessed May 3, 2013 (Albanian). 
7. ↑ Change of power in Albania. In: Deutsche Welle . June 25, 2013, accessed September 3, 2013 . 
8. ↑ Rama dekretohet Kryeministër (Rama is decreed as Prime Minister). In: Top Channel . September 10, 2013, accessed September 10, 2013 (Albanian). 
9. ↑ Braçe shpreh pakënaqësinë, Rama i ndërpret fjalën: Jemi live, jemi live… (No longer available online.) Hashtag.al, September 26, 2017, archived from the original on September 28, 2017 ; Retrieved September 28, 2017 (Albanian). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
10. ↑ Qeveria ka financuar fshehurazi Bienalen e Venecias. Hashtag.al, September 27, 2017, accessed September 28, 2017 (Albanian). 
11. ↑ Pse u bllokua transmetimi i punimeve të Kuvendit? (No longer available online.) Hashtag.al, September 28, 2017, archived from the original on September 29, 2017 ; Retrieved September 28, 2017 (Albanian). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ^ Edi Rama elected Prime Minister of Albania , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 17, 2021.
13. ^ Albania approves new female-dominated Cabinet , Deutsche Welle, September 17, 2021.
14. ↑ Documentaries / Edvin apo Edi? Yes emri i vërtetë i kryeministrit Rama. (No longer available online.) May 20, 2016, archived from the original on June 3, 2016 ; Retrieved June 4, 2016 (Albanian). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
15. ↑ vjen në jetë Zaho Rama, djali i çiftit kryeministror Linda e Edi. In: Shqiptarja. July 25, 2014, Retrieved May 6, 2016 (Albanian). 
16. ↑ Fjala e PLOTE e Rames në Iftarin e shtruar për muajin e Ramazani. (No longer available online.) In: Shqiptarja. July 8, 2014, archived from the original on August 9, 2014 ; Retrieved on July 29, 2014 (Albanian): "Edi Rama: 'Unë nuk Praktikoj besim tjetër, përveç atij tek vetja dhe tek njerëzit, por nuk besoj se sidoqoftë eksiztenca ose jo e Zotit është një çështit zjgë mundë tëhmhet tëqjëksdonga . '“ Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
17. ↑ Edi Rama: Jam Katolik! (No longer available online.) In: Balkanweb. September 19, 2014, archived from the original on October 5, 2014 ; accessed on November 11, 2014 (Albanian): “Unë jam pagëzuar katolik nga gjyshja ime. Ka qenë viti 1964 dhe end nuk ishin mbyllur kishat e xhamitë. " 
18. ↑ PM Edi Rama received Légion d'Honneur title by French President. In: Top Channel. March 29, 2017, accessed April 1, 2017 . 
19. ↑ Confession about “Kurban”. (No longer available online.) Top Channel , November 9, 2011, archived from the original on November 20, 2011 ; accessed on November 11, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.