Edi Rama is the prime minister of Albania, leading the governing Socialist Party. He was elected to a fourth consecutive term in May 2025. Under his leadership since 2013, Albania's GDP has grown by 160% in euro terms, though its population has shrunk from 2.9m to 2.4m. He has promised that Albania will join the EU by 2030.
Mr Rama is well-connected abroad. He speaks warmly of Viktor Orban, Hungary's prime minister, and is on good terms with Pedro Sánchez of Spain and Mette Frederiksen of Denmark. He collaborated with Giorgia Meloni, Italy's prime minister, on her plan to ship asylum-seekers to camps in Albania, and in November 2025 the two governments signed 16 agreements on subjects ranging from energy to security. He has also reached out to the leadership of France's National Rally. Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law, has received clearance to build a beach resort in Albania.
Mr Rama has offered to temporarily forgo Albania's veto on EU proposals and give up its right to a European commissioner, if that would help win over sceptics. He has also been courting the Gulf states.
SPAK, Albania's independent anti-corruption authority, has indicted several of Mr Rama's top allies. In late 2025 it indicted Belinda Balukku, his deputy prime minister, for allegedly rigging a tender for an infrastructure project. A former protégé, the mayor of Tirana, is governing the city from his jail cell after being arrested on corruption charges. Mr Rama says he does not know whether Balukku is guilty but criticises the courts' decision to suspend her from office. Of his allies facing charges, he says: "I am not married to them."
You are scrupulously honest, frank, and straightforward. Therefore you have few friends.