By Rashela Shehu-
The Socialist Party Assembly showed that the head of the socialists, Edi Rama, must also manage discontent within the party.
The Assembly held on Saturday (14.11) in Lalëz Bay in Albania was supposed to serve to set the socialist structures in motion for next year’s local elections. Prime Minister Edi Rama was greeted with applause by members of the Socialist Party Assembly. But as soon as he took the floor, he asked for the media broadcast to be cut. “I want to share a few words only with the Assembly, with my political family,” he said.
Rama seeks discipline
Behind closed doors, according to a source present at the meeting who spoke to Deutsche Welle, two names were in the spotlight: Plarent Ndreca and Elisa Spiropali. Rama sought measures against them because of their public critical stances.
After Rama, MP Spiropali herself took the floor. The former Speaker of Parliament rejected the accusations, insisting that her stances were not against Rama, but against the way appointments were made and how, according to her, some individuals were abusing power.
Socialist MPs Fatmir Xhafaj, Pandeli Majko and Erion Braçe also intervened in the debate. All three opposed Spiropali’s expulsion from the party, supporting softer measures. Rama’s proposal was not put to a vote. After the Assembly ended, PS Secretary General Blendi Klosi clarified that Spiropali and Ndreca are excluded from the party’s forums but remain members.
Veliaj challenges Rama with a no-confidence motion
About an hour before the Assembly began, Erion Veliaj had sent socialist colleagues a ten-page letter from Fier prison. In it, the mayor of Tirana sought the activation of the statutory procedure for a no-confidence motion against Edi Rama. As his main argument, he cited the concentration of decision-making in the hands of the leader and the weakening of the party’s forums.
“Edi Rama has been an important reformer of the Socialist Party. But I believe that today he has become the main obstacle to its reform,” Veliaj wrote.
Rama did not comment on the request for a no-confidence motion. In his speech broadcast to the media, he addressed the pre-trial detention of the mayor of Tirana.
“It is an absurd pre-trial detention and remains a matter of democracy,” Rama said, adding that “you cannot take the capital’s elected mayor and lock him up without trial, but on the other hand you cannot say that he cannot be replaced because he is in office?”
The request for a no-confidence motion is the latest episode in the clash between Rama and Veliaj. The latter had earlier accused the prime minister of asking him, through the Minister of Justice, to give up running the capital’s municipality. Justice Minister Toni Gogu has denied these claims.
Socialists launch campaign for local elections
“The Socialist Party is officially in campaign mode,” declared PS Secretary General Blendi Klosi after the Assembly ended. The socialists thus begin preparations for the local elections of May 9, 2027, which will be held under the new territorial division, with 46 municipalities instead of 61.
“We must discuss from today until May 9 so that we understand ‘what kind of Albania we want’,” Rama said, emphasizing that there must be direct communication with citizens.
Changes were also announced in the organization of the socialists in Tirana. Rama dismissed Erion Veliaj from the political leadership of the PS in the capital, while Albana Koçiu and Ervin Demo were proposed as co-leaders of the party organization in the Municipality of Tirana. “The political leadership will continue under Ogerta Manastirliu,” Klosi clarified.
The Assembly also approved the platform “My Municipality’s Councillor” for selecting candidates for municipal councils. Applications will also be open to interested parties outside the proposals of party forums. The platform will be led by the three Socialist MPs Bora Muzhaqi, Ermal Pacaj and Pirro Vengu./DW/