Edi Rama has hit out at UK home secretary Suella Braverman
(Picture: Chris J Ratcliffe/PA)Albania’s prime minister Edi Rama has hit out at the United Kingdom Government on Wednesday, saying that London must stop blaming Albanians for its own “policy failures”.
The comments come as a rebuke to British home secretary Suella Braverman’s “insane” reasoning.
Taking to Twitter, Rama said: “Targeting Albanians (as some shamefully did when fighting for Brexit) as the cause of Britain’s crime and border problems makes for easy rhetoric but ignores hard facts. Repeating the same things and expecting different results is insane.”
Targeting Albanians (as some shamefully did when fighting for Brexit) as the cause of Britain’s crime and border problems makes for easy rhetoric but ignores hard fact. Repeating the same things and expecting different results is insane (ask Einstein!)
— Edi Rama (@ediramaal) November 2, 2022
Around 12,000 Albanian nationals crossed the English Channel in small boats this year, according to Dan O’Mahoney, the Government’s clandestine channel threat commander.
However, Rama argued that most Albanians who move to the United Kingdom already lived in European countries, such as Italy and Greece, saying: “Albanians in the UK work hard and pay tax.”
But who is he?
Who is Edi Rama, the prime minister of Albania?
Edi Rama, 58, is an Albanian politician, painter, writer, former basketball player, and former university lecturer, who has served as the 33rd prime minister of Albania since 2013, as well as the chairman of the Socialist Party of Albania since 2005.
Prior to holding his tenure as prime minister, Rama also held a number of other positions.
In 1998, he was appointed Minister of Culture, Youth, and Sports, a role that he held until 2000.
First elected as mayor of Tirana in 2000, he was re-elected in 2003, and then again in 2007.
In 2017, Rama was elected prime minister for a second term, when he won a third mandate following the 2021 parliamentary election, in which he defeated the Democratic Party of Albania’s candidate, Lulzim Basha, for the second time in a row.
He is the only Albanian prime minister in history to have won three parliamentary elections in a row.
Rama was baptised as Catholic and identifies as Catholic, however, at present, he says he’s agnostic, stating: “I do not practise any faith other than to the self and other people, but I don’t believe that the existence or non-existence of God is a matter that can ever be resolved by mortals.”
Early in his life, Rama married the actress Matilda Makoçi, with whom he has a son. Since 2010, he has been married to Linda Rama, and they also have a son.
