BIRN: Rama suppresses criticism within SP over controversial territorial reform

The new territorial map that foresees the merger of 15 small municipalities was approved on Thursday at midnight with 85 votes in favor, votes that came from 82 SP deputies and the mandates of Tom Doshi's Social Democratic Party.

The SP's unilateral initiative was strongly opposed by the opposition, by the municipal councils of the municipalities that will be merged, and by the local communities in these areas who protested on Thursday in front of parliament.

In the plenary session, opposing voices were also raised within the ranks of the Socialist Party, but their positions were not reflected in the final vote, following Prime Minister Edi Rama's warnings about expulsion from the parliamentary group.

“He (Rama) said; if you vote against, you are out of this parliamentary group,” said the party’s veteran MP, Erion Braçe, during a media briefing just hours before the vote in parliament. In the end, Braçe voted according to the prime minister’s will and contrary to his public stance.

Expressing strong reservations about the SP initiative, Braçe said in the Assembly on Thursday that it was not about 'reform', but about 'drawing a new map' without considering that this would change the lives of people in the municipalities being merged. "The map, tried many times, is temporary and unstable and as a reform, completely insufficient," he criticized.

Even MP Elisa Spiropali, who for months has been trying to create a critical profile within the ranks of the Socialist Party, ultimately voted in favor, even though she had warned the opposite during her speech.

"We are neither cardboard boxes nor irresponsible people. The way you address us is revolting," Spiropali said at the hearing.

Other socialist MPs, who had expressed criticism and demanded that the will of the residents in the areas where they were elected MPs be taken into account, withdrew at the last moment, submitting to the party's political decision, despite the constitutional guarantees that the MP expresses their individual will.

Belinda Balluku, the former deputy prime minister under investigation for corruption and violation of equality in tenders, who appeared in parliament on Thursday evening after weeks of absence, also voted in favor of the new map.

Prime Minister Rama commented with ironic notes on the suppression of critical voices in his party.

"Beyond all the internal debates, external speculations and the vicissitudes of a time confused by all sorts of dirty hands, some visible and some invisible but not undiscovered now, last night's vote in the Assembly gave Albania another modernizing impetus" - he wrote on the X platform, adding that "on the other hand, it showed once again to all those who needed it, that they should never make 'accounts without a host' with the Socialist Party".

Rama has led the Socialist Party since 2005, when its former historic leader Fatos Nano resigned after losing that year's parliamentary elections. In a party that had been plagued by debates and political factions for years, Rama built an authoritarian figure, where party institutions and internal debate are almost non-existent. Reporter.al