(Adnkronos) – ”The ambition to transform Albania and a courageous vision of modernization without ever giving up”. Together with a ”real party, very well organized everywhere in the country, an unbeatable war machine in the territory”. This is how the socialist Edi Rama describes in an interview with La Repubblica the ‘winning cards’ that led him to triumph at the polls in Albania, making him the longest-serving leader of the country after Enver Hoxha. ”We have changed Albania with a clear vision and great perseverance”, he underlines in an interview with Corriere della Sera, explaining that he received congratulations from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, ”she wrote me a message from sister to brother”.
The point that Rama highlights is that ”these elections were a referendum on Europe. We won because here there is a great desire for Europe that we embody better than anyone. People want to get there. We are negotiating at an impressive speed”, now ”we are one step away and we must seize the moment: the EU is a house of the rich and does not open the door when you knock. They must have an interest in doing so and now they have opened it. But it is not said that it will be forever”.
Being part of the EU, he explains, for Albanians ”is a matter of dignity and right of citizenship”, it is ”a historic milestone”.
For the fourth time Prime Minister of Albania, Rama aims in the next four years of government to bring ”to completion the great European construction site of Albania. Our goal is to close the accession negotiations by 2027. In the meantime, we will continue to modernize the country, strengthening the rule of law and the economy, supporting families and making the country’s 360-degree transformation irreversible. Every day, with humility and determination”. And Albania ”in 2030 will be ready in 2030” to enter the EU.
Rama, on the other hand, cuts short the accusations of fraud by his opponent Sali Berisha of the Democratic Party, on the right. ”I’m used to it. In 35 years of pluralism they have never really recognized a lost election” and ”it’s just bar talk, the fault is always with the opponents or the referee”. Adding that ”we win because Albanians believe in the path we are taking together, not because the opposition loses”.
