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Edi Rama

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Edi Rama is the leader of the Socialist Party of Albania and Mayor of Tirana. He won the World Mayor Award 2004^[1] and was included in Time Magazine's European Heroes 2005 list.^[2]

1 Involvement in politics
2 Local elections 2007
3 Impact on Tirana
4 References
5 External links

Involvement in politics

Rama took the reins of the Socialist Party, after it was led to defeat by the previous leader Fatos Nano in 2005. He managed to restore the party's image and lead it to a major victory in the local government elections in 2007. Rama was active during the anti-Communist revolution, while he was a professor at the Academy of Arts of Tirana -- then a political centre. In 1992, he co-authored an anti-Communist book called "Refleksione" with his long time friend Ardian Klosi, condemning Enver Hoxha's regime and offering insight into emigration, economics and the future of Albania. He criticized Sali Berisha, at that time President of Albania, for his dictatorial methods, low performance and madness, but was not taken seriously until his return to Albania. In 1997, Sali Berisha secret police beat Rama nearly to death. After a long recovery, he emigrated to Paris. In 2004, Rama remained Mayor of Tirana, with, this time, just under 59 per cent of the vote. On June 27 2005, Rama was featured in an article by Jane Kramer for the New Yorker entitled "Painting the Town" (referring to Tirana).

He became chair of the Socialist Party of Albania on October 9 2005. He ran for his third time as Mayor of Tirana in the February 18 2007 elections and won against DP party candidate Sokol Olldashi.

Local elections 2007

An intersection in Tirana

On February 15 2007, during his heated campaign against Sokol Olldashi for the position of Tirana's mayor, a bomb exploded in a restaurant shortly after Rama had left it. Nude photographs of Rama and his ex-girlfriend (from 1995, before he was involved with Albanian politics) were leaked to the media.^[3] This was generally thought of as an unethical move from his opponent's side and his opponent, Sali Berisha, was forced to distance himself from the release of the photos and deny any involvement. The incident was dubbed by the media as Berisha's Penisgate, in reference to Nixon's Watergate scandal. Edi Rama went on to win the 2007 elections and secure another four-year term as the Mayor of Tirana.

Impact on Tirana

The most noted impact of Rama has been the many improvements to the city since he took over. Although he has been accused of corruption and mismanagement of funds by the opposition, he is mostly liked by the citizens for his bold style and for cleaning up the city. Rama's Return to Identity project rid the city of many illegally constructed buildings and kiosks on municipal lands such as local parks and the banks of the Lana. His Clean and Green project in 2000 resulted in the production of 96,700 square metres of green land and parks in the city and the planting of nearly 1,800 trees. He also ordered the painting of many old buildings in what has come to be known as Edi Rama colours (very bright yellow, green, violet). He is also trying to change people's consciousness in the direction of shared responsibility for their city, and to enhance people's trust in the government. Rama's critics claim that he is focusing too much attention on cosmetic changes without fixing any of the major problems such as shortages of drinking water and electricity. Furthermore, in an attempt to widen roads, he has single handedly authorized the bulldozing of private properties so that they can be paved over, thus widening streets. The owners of such properties have neither been given compensation for this, nor has permission been requested from them. Rama, a former artist, had this to say about his work as mayor: "It's the most exciting job in the world, because I get to invent and to fight for good causes everyday. Being the mayor of Tirana is the highest form of conceptual art. It's art in a pure state."^[4] Rama also is the head of the Albanian Association of Mayors. He is no longer active as an artist. On October 12 2003 Rama was the winner for the mayoral seat of Tirana, gathering 61% the votes from the reporting of 283 from 346 voting places. Edi Rama was elected World Mayor 2004 in an Internet poll by City Mayors, beating second-place Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mayor of Mexico City, and third-place Walter Veltroni, Mayor of Rome.^[5]