BIRN: Rama's action for public spaces, a repeated spectacle

After winning a landslide victory for his fourth term, Prime Minister Edi Rama returned to his favorite action this early July: he promised a national campaign to liberate public spaces.

The action was launched by the Municipality of Vlora after a closed-door meeting on July 3, where Rama blamed local officials for a number of problems, including the occupation of public spaces by tents, umbrellas, and chairs from bars and restaurants.

Afterwards, the National Inspectorate for Territorial Protection, IKMT, landed in the Albanian Alps in Theth to demolish several wooden cabins placed without permission, while Rama called a Shkodra prosecutor into battle, whom he blamed for closing the investigation against the abusers.

This is not the first time that Rama has promised to establish the rule of law on the territory through actions, which in the past have yielded controversial results.

In August 2013, when he was newly elected prime minister, Rama declared a national emergency to clean up the coast from illegal construction. Another similar campaign was repeated after winning the 2021 elections, entitled “Our Coast,” where Rama promised to demolish illegal constructions and bring those responsible to justice.

In the fall of 2022, Rama's government issued a normative act for the confiscation of unauthorized additions to Tirana's tower blocks. But a year and a half later, the government returned the buildings to the lawbreakers at prices 10 times lower than the market value.

Governance through 'actions' can be called a distinctive feature of Rama's government, which, according to experts, has shown in the past a lack of results and systemic failure of institutions.

For Zef Preçi, director of the Institute for Economic Studies, the latest action confirms the “spectacular failure of the system” built by Rama during his 12 years in power. Preçi recalls that the government pays an army of civil servants and public officials, while the sidewalks are occupied by businesses – often through “under the table” payments.

"The end of the next action is more or less known, just as the action against informality, illegal water and electricity connections, or the action against gambling, the reorganization of inspectorates, including those of the coast, the National Employment Agency, etc., ended in a flash," warns Preçi.

Doriana Musai, architect and activist, also believes that the government's new action is just another show that makes noise but does not address the problem.

“The problem is not solved by seasonal government decisions, much less by top-down orders from a single person,” Musai told BIRN.

"Instead of holding the authorities in control of the territory accountable, this responsibility tends to be distributed 'to everyone and to no one,'" Musai added - while emphasizing that in the end the loser will once again be the public.

Legal occupation, a bigger problem

The abuse of territory through unauthorized construction has been a systemic problem in transitional Albania, and yet, experts say that public properties in Albania are facing a greater threat – that of illegal occupation.

To illustrate this fact, Preçi mentions construction in major cities as well as strategic investments on the coast, which are made with the government's blessing.

He emphasizes that actions ordered by Rama without taking institutional responsibility for the illegalities are a populist behavior that hides the real problem of the government's illegal occupation of public property.

“In fact, the real concern of citizens is related to the permanent occupation by construction in both the main cities and the southern coast, for which Mr. Rama and his establishment have no answer and by making noise in distant Thethi, they shift attention from the aggression of business lobbies, the oligarchy and organized crime in the most favored parts of the country’s territory,” Preçi told BIRN.

Doriana Musaj also sees Rama's latest action as an attempt to hide the real problem facing public property, which is its destruction by law. According to her, instead of protecting these common assets, the government has turned them "into private goods for clientelistic interests and development propaganda."

"The government itself has been the main promoter of the usurpation of public lands, granting permits for massive construction in parks, seashores, protected areas and even in historical centers," Musai tells BIRN.

In this context, Musai emphasizes that the problem with bar chairs and umbrellas is only the "tip of the iceberg." /BIRN