21/09/2013
“I write today to bring you good news from a remote corner of the world: Last Sunday, the Socialist government of Edi Rama took office in Albania”, says journalist James Traub.
The article initially brings details from the political career of the 49-year-old Prime Minister of Albania, focusing on the deep victory against his rival, Sali Berisha.
“The new prime minister is a 49-year-old painter who has lived in Paris, a former member of the Albanian national basketball team -- itself a remarkable proof of multiple intelligences -- the former three-term mayor of the capital Tirana, a leader of street protests, a canny politician, a bearded Bohemian, a dedicated reformer, and quite possibly the best thing to happen to Albania in a very long time”, the article says.
By identifying the problems that the Rama government needs, journalist James Traub writes: “God knows the country could use a break. Albania is about as close to the Third World as you can get without leaving Europe.”
The article analyzes the local governing model of Edi Rama when he was Mayor of Tirana, by emphasizing the fact that Rama hired a staff of foreign-educated, English-speaking young people with no prior experience in politics.
“Rama, who once described Albanian politics as "the highest level of conceptual art," was the Vaclav Havel of Tirana's Velvet Revolution”, Foreign Policy underlines.
The article quotes Erjon Veliaj, Minister of Social Affairs and Youth, who says that they are trying to show that Albanians can be very understanding when the government looks them in the eye and says, We're in this together".
“Foreign Policy” analyzes the actions of former Prime Minister Berisha, saying: “Former Prime Minister Sali Berisha, a great fan of free-market economics, not only invited Steve Forbes to Tirana but turned Albania into a Forbesian paradise by instituting a flat tax and privatizing core public services, including energy and water. The Forbesian experiment has fallen flat: Albania's growth rate now hovers around zero.”
The article goes on saying about Rama: “He has vowed to offer a national health care system; to make major investments in education; and to halt, and perhaps partly reverse, the campaign of privatization.”
Foreign Policy considers positive the fact that the government has hired Crown Agents, a private British consulting firm which extensively reformed Bulgaria's financial administration.
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