TIRANA, July 6 – Prime Minister Edi Rama and other Socialist Party officials have launched a tour across the country to thank Albanians for giving the Socialists a governing majority in the recent election and to seek input from voters on what the new government should prioritize.
Socialist Party leaders in the 12 Albanian counties are involved as well as Rama himself who has dubbed the tour “The Albania we want.”
He is also asking Albanians about their priorities on social media channels and set up an email for qualified people to send CVs if they want to work in public sector positions.
Rama has said that the public administration will take priority in the next four years, indicating he is looking to hire thousands of new public sector employees to replace inadequate ones currently serving.
Many analysts see this as a potential new purge in the public administration to get rid of activists from rival parties and substitute them with Socialist-friendly workers. Rama said he is simply looking to increase the quality of public servants as many are now locked out of jobs due to less qualified people having been hired due to party affiliation.
Albania’s ruling Socialist Party has been able to gain a comfortable governing majority in the June 25 parliamentary elections, winning 74 seats in the 140-member parliament. Its chief rival, the center-right Democratic Party, has scored one of its worst results in its 27-year history, coming in second with 45 seats. The Socialist Movement for Integration came in third with 19 seats, moving to the ranks of the opposition after eight years in power in successive DP- and SP-led governments in which SMI served as kingmaker.
