In a post on social media, Prime Minister Edi Rama commented after the Administrative-Territorial Reform was approved with 85 votes in favor. The reform provides for the merger of 15 municipalities, despite opposition from affected residents, who also took to the streets in protest.
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The prime minister wrote that, beyond internal debates and external speculation, Parliament’s vote on the reform had given “Albania another step toward modernization.”
Rama said the vote had also shown “everyone who needed to see it that they should never ‘count their chickens before they hatch’ with the Socialist Party.”
“Beyond all the internal debates, external speculation and the trials of a time muddied by all sorts of dirty hands—some visible and some invisible, but by now exposed—last night’s vote in Parliament gave Albania another step toward modernization. At the same time, it once again showed everyone who needed to see it that they should never ‘count their chickens before they hatch’ with the Socialist Party,” Rama wrote.
The territorial reform was approved in the early hours of today, following a marathon debate. With 85 votes in favor, the Socialists paved the way for a new map of Albania with 46 municipalities.
Rama himself was present at the session, and MP Erion Braçe also voted in favor, despite having strongly opposed the bill.
Earlier, fellow Socialist Vullnet Sinaj had also signaled a change of position. Along with Braçe, he had opposed the draft at a meeting of the Socialist Party’s parliamentary group.
