Edi Rama
Edi Rama ( born July 4, 1964 in Tirana) is an Albanian politician and artist. Since September 10, 2013, is the 12th Prime Minister of Albania. Since October 2005 he is also Chairman of the Socialist Party of Albania (PS). Between 2000 and 2011 he was mayor of Tirana.
Biography
Sports career and early artistic and political activities
Edi Rama was the son of Kristaq Rama, a sculptor from Durres, and the medical examiner Aneta Rama ( born Koleka ) born. As a teenager, he was a player in basketball club Dinamo and in the late 1980s and the national team. At the time of the overthrow of the Stalinist dictatorship, he worked as a lecturer at the Academy of Arts, where he had been trained as a painter. At this time he married Matilda Makoci, with whom he has a son, Gregor Rama. 1994, left the two divorced, and Edi Rama emigrated to France. There he took - mainly in Paris - along with his friend Anri Sala at various art exhibitions.
Edi Rama was actively involved in the first democracy movements in Albania in the early 1990s. He criticized the ruling Democratic Party under Sali Berisha of corruption and began his career as an internationally recognized artist. 1998 Rama was at the funeral of his father back in Albania. The new Socialist Prime Minister Fatos Nano appointed him as Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports in the government.
Mayor of Tirana
In October 2000 he moved as a new mayor to the town hall of Tirana. As an independent candidate, he had been able to unite 57% of the vote, with the support of the Socialist Party. Since the takeover of the mayor office, he was illegally built buildings such as kiosks and nightclubs tear down and took measures for waste management and greening. For his project " Clean and Green " he was honored by the United Nations. In autumn 2003, Rama joined the Socialist Party. He ran unsuccessfully against the incumbent Fatos Nano as party chairman. Only in October 2005, he was elected to this office after Nano had retired due to the defeat of the socialists in the elections in the former summer from politics.
28 December 2003 Rama was re-elected with 59% of votes for mayor. Since then, the focus of its activities was the creation of a city plan for Tirana, whose population had more than doubled since 1990. Also in February 2007 he was again confirmed with 56% of votes in office. In autumn 2004 35.000 participants in the Internet community City Mayors Rama chose for World Mayor 2004.
In the local elections in 2011 Edi Rama lost narrowly by 95 votes in the gap with the Democratic candidate, Lulzim Basha. After almost eleven years thus ended his career as mayor of the Albanian capital.
Prime Minister of Albania
For the first time in his political career Edi Rama joined the 2013 parliamentary elections as a candidate of the Socialist Party for the Vlorë County in order to move this party into parliament as an MP can. In advance of the 2013 parliamentary elections in April left the socialist LSI coalition government formed in 2009 with the Democrats to switch over to the Socialists. The Alliance for a European Albania, a coalition including with the LSI, reached a clear majority. Edi Rama thus assumed the office of outgoing Prime Minister Sali Berisha. On September 10, 2013 were Edi Rama officially Prime Minister of Albania.
In the first days of his term took place some government decisions. The first was a ban on the import of waste. This was followed by, among others, the redistribution of tasks among the various government ministries. Some ministries were merged, split others and still others refounded. The seat of government in Tirana gave Rama inside a new look, so as not to have to work in the atmosphere of its predecessor Sali Berisha.
Rama undertook in the first weeks of his tenure several state visits to Western Europe, the USA and in the Balkans. His first state visit took place just two days after he was sworn in as Prime Minister of Kosovo, where he met his counterpart Hashim Thaci. After that he went to Brussels on September 16 to meet with representatives and chairman of the EU. Last followed by visits to the UN in New York on September 21, October 26, with the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Prizren, Kosovo, on November 5, 2013, he visited Macedonia, where he not only high government officials and the chairman of the Albanian parties met and on 14 November he was in Podgorica to visit the Montenegrin Prime Minister.
On November 15, Edi Rama said at a news conference that it was impossible for Albania to take Syrian chemical weapons and to destroy them. Prior to that numerous protests in many cities of Albania and a huge opposition in the social networks. Thus Rama refused a request of the United States, although it was expected that Albania would accept as a close partner of the United States. The crowd in front of the seat of government was jubilant after Rama's statement after she demonstrated for 48 hours against the import of hazardous chemical weapons.
Private
Edi Rama is married to Linda Rama ( née Basha ). The couple has two children, Greg and Rea Rama.
Book publications
- Kurban. Botimet Dudaj, Tirana 2011