2000 vs 2025: Smile for the gift, tears for the Municipality. Will Manastirliu forgive Rama for this bomb?!

Ogerta Manastirliu was stunned in front of the Socialists when Edi Rama announced during the Assembly that she would no longer be a minister.

" I know you won't easily forgive me for this unannounced bombshell this time," the prime minister said, as the look on the Minister of Education's face spoke louder than words.

Rama appointed her as the Socialist Party's candidate for the Municipality of Tirana, ending her career as a minister and facing a battle that, according to him, is more important than any ministry.

But whether this was an honor or a "blow", Manastirliu showed this with her facial expressions.

Her political history began more than two decades ago, in the Municipality of Tirana, when Edi Rama had just been elected mayor.

In a video that is currently circulating virally on social media, Manastirliu appears as a simple employee who goes on stage during the show Opinion to deliver a surprise gift to Mayor Rama.

In the years that followed, she would climb every career ladder under Rama's attention. She headed the QSUT, was declared the "Golden Bee", then took over the Ministry of Health, becoming one of the most exposed figures of the socialist government during the pandemic. In 2023, she was appointed Minister of Education, a post she handed over on September 11, to enter the race for the Municipality of Tirana.

Today, more than 20 years after first joining that institution as a new employee, Ogerta Manastirliu returns to the Municipality of Tirana with the aim of running it herself.

The irony is that this only happened because Edi Rama decided not to keep him in government anymore.

Therefore, the question that is circulating is simple: is this a big reward or a "bomb" wrapped as a gift? And above all, will Manastirliu forgive Rama for this surprise?