Parliament approves new cabinet in 82-55 vote
TIRANA, Sep. 15 – Albania’s new Socialist prime minister on Sunday easily won approval for his government in parliament, pledging to fight poverty and unemployment and take the country closer to the European Union in the next four years.
Lawmakers voted 82-55 to approve the 20-member Cabinet. Edi Rama’s Socialist-led leftist coalition won a landslide election victory in June, defeating conservative Prime Minister Sali Berisha on pledges of fighting widespread corruption and bringing the NATO member closer to its goal of joining the EU. They have 83 seats in the 140-member parliament.
The 49-year-old Rama has promised to create 300,000 jobs at home and reduce poverty. A recent survey shows one in seven Albanians live on less than $2 per day.
He promised to make his country less reliant on remittances from migrant workers by creating 300,000 jobs at home.
The approval came after a 22-hour debate in the parliament from some 99 lawmakers, most of them from the opposition Democrats. Following that he was formally sworn in at the president.
Rama warned that Albania’s economy is in troubled waters, and said he would seek advice from the International Monetary Fund. Albania has relied for the last two decades on money sent home by hundreds of thousands of immigrants living in Italy and neighboring Greece, which has been significantly reduced in recent years. Growth in Albania has slowed down since those two countries were hit by the financial crisis. Albania has a population of just over 3 million and up to 1 million other Albanians are estimated to be working abroad.
Rama’s new government was formed in alliance with a junior partner, the Socialist Movement for Integration Party of Ilir Meta, a 44-year-old former prime minister, now heading the Parliament as its Speaker.
Rama’s new Cabinet is filled with political newcomers and includes six women נan unprecedented step in Albania.
Unemployment currently stands at 12.8 percent. But the Socialists argue the jobless rate is hugely underreported because many rural residents are typically not counted.
Rama’s new government is promising to transform the economy “from one based on remittances, international aid with soft loans, privatization income, self-employment in agriculture, small retails shops, and construction … to one based on production,” according to the government program.
It promises to ease taxes on medium-sized businesses and reform the revenue system, abandoning a 10 percent flat tax on personal income in favor of a progressive taxation.
Following the swearing-in ceremony, Rama held a short speech in front of the government building together with his team, in front of some hundreds of supporters gathered there.
He tried to thank everyone, including those who had voted against the leftist coalition and pledging to govern for the whole people.
“We have been elected to unite not to divide,” he said. “We have been voted to give energy to our joint nation so that it does not lose other endless years in the road toward the European Albania, toward the European Union.”
He also warned that the European dream would not come overnight and that the whole population should give its contribution to that goal.
Soon after, Rama also held the first meeting of its new cabinet and took the first three decisions: replacing the photo of the country’s president Bujar Nishani with that of Ismail Qemali, who founded the Albanian state 101 years ago; canceling a previous law on waste import and a code of ethics for the cabinet members.
