Linda Rama, wife of Prime Minister Edi Rama, was a guest this past Saturday on Euronews Albania’s program Inside Albania, where among other topics, she was asked if she had ever considered entering active politics.
In the interview with journalist Alice Taylor, Rama explained that after her experience in the state administration during the 1990s, as part of the National Privatization Agency, she chose to pursue a career in research and independent consulting, collaborating with international organizations.
“I realized very early that to enter politics, you have to be a winner,” Rama said, adding that she has found her contributions more valuable outside of politics, through civil society involvement and academic work.
She praised the efforts of many professionals within public administration, emphasizing that despite their high qualifications, not all have had the opportunity to be politically represented.
During the interview, Linda Rama also shared advice for women and girls aspiring to engage in politics, academia, or public administration. She stressed the importance of maintaining a strong professional profile and personal integrity, beyond just increasing the numerical representation of women.
Rama highlighted the need for women to face competition, learn how to win, and accept defeat as part of democratic life. She also criticized the tendency of some women to seek support solely based on gender, emphasizing that solidarity should be grounded in shared values.
Interview:
Alice Taylor: It is. Linda, what would you say to a young woman, a young Albanian woman who is aspiring to work in academia, or research, or even politics, or in sort of governance, the governance sort of sector? What advice would you give to them?
Linda Rama: Giving advice it’s… I give tips time after time. Because the experience and all the work I have done, maybe, has helped me to understand certain things. But for women, I’m really sensitive to the developments, to the way we are developing at all levels, even those that you are talking about, academia and other fields. I think that in any field we are, as women… we have proved in Albania that numbers are not sufficient. It’s a right for a woman to work, it’s a right to use its own talents, to be good for the society, to be treated equally, to have a good work and life balance.These are all rights. The issue is that as soon as these rights were not in place, I think that all our fight was for these rights to be there. Now, since years, we have been progressing well in women representation, in different levels of politics, government, public administration, judicial, in local government, and also in the private sector. I’ve done a study years ago. I have not repeated that study, but it’s clear that women have very important roles in management of private companies as well. Now, the problem is that maybe we need to think a little bit in certain capacities, who is the right woman, the right profile. Because having just numbers in women, I don’t think that it’s important. It’s very important, but it’s not sufficient.… The women themselves need to ask: what kind of profile we need in the parliament? What kind of profile we need in the government? And what kind of young women we need in politics? And I think that dignity, integrity and the capacity not to get used and to be abused it’s crucial for a woman. I think that for women… and this is in every sector basically, I think that for women it’s very important to know how to face competition and how to use all the knowledge and all skills for being in the competition, let’s say a winner, but through a competition. I think that women must be very careful when they are in politics because they have to accept to win and to be defeated.
Alice Taylor: Yes.
Linda Rama: And I don’t think that a woman has a right to challenge whatever is in the heart of democracy. Whatever people vote…
Alice Taylor: It should be merit-based, democracy-based.
Linda Rama: …whatever people vote seriously have to be respected.So counting every vote is very important. And we have progressed a lot on that direction. But every vote matters as to who is decided the winner. And no one has the right to overcome the will of the people if you ask people to come and trust you and vote you based on rules that we have accepted to be rules of our country after we faced catastrophic decades on false voting and false elections.
Alice Taylor: Totalitarian…
Linda Rama: I think that the way women face their opponents is also very important. And I have seen, in certain cases, women that call for their origin. They call their grandparents, they call sometimes their communities. They call all of them to defend certain positions. While I think that also they complain that they are being attacked while they attack from day to night themselves. Or they say that they are bullied while they bully themselves. I don’t think that women have any exclusivity on the things that we don’t like in our houses to happen and in our children to be seen. Just being women doesn’t justify. On the contrary, the society expects from women better qualities and that’s why we have been fighting a lot for that and I think that this better contribution especially is important for other women and other girls. And you know what, Alice? Sometimes women are in solidarity with women when they are found in bad positions just because they are women. Now this is worse. Whoever woman decides to be on the side of another woman, even though the society have very controversial opinions about that, just because it is a woman I think that this is even worse than the wrong woman itself. So we should be very careful at the times that we are living because we already keep in our shoulders all the stereotypes and all the problems that the history and the centuries have brought to women profiles. If a man puts a certain energy, we need to put hundred times more energy to be taken seriously, to not be prejudiced, to be given opportunities and this is the time that we have to build a profile that in fact we deserve to have.Because this will serve very much as models for the young girls and the young women, that in fact might find the inspiration to not touch their character and their substance, while thinking they need to change it in order to progress. And this is true for every sector, this is true for every level, and this is for everything in life.
Alice Taylor: Yes, I agree. It is not just because you are a woman, you have to do it because you deserve it. You deserve to be there because it is the right thing to do. This one has to be my last question. I wish we had longer, but it was something you said which made me want to ask: Did you ever think about going into politics yourself? Or do you much prefer more to stay behind the scenes? Because the way you speak with such conviction about this topic and you have this passion in this way expressing yourself… Did you ever think about it?
Linda Rama: I understood very early in my life that to go into politics you need to be a winner. And, of course, when I got out from the government, in fact, I found myself in the dilemma what to do next.And at that moment, because of all confrontation I had with politics, because I was at the level that, in fact, was very much confronted, I decided that I would be much more useful as part of the civil society, as part of the, let’s say, independent research and advice, together with international institutions that are present in Albania. I appreciate very much whoever is in politics. So I don’t have prejudgment. But at the same time, their accountability matters a lot for me. And I think that a lot needs to be done by politicians and whoever is in politics to deserve the respect and to deliver whatever they are assigned to. Because it’s a huge privilege to have this kind of opportunity. And when you asked this question I had so many other friends that in fact could have been fantastic politicians, fantastic MPs and fantastic ministers. They already are in public administration and I think that many of them… that’s why the screening process has amazed everyone in EU and somehow everyone was much surprised by the level. Because at that level, there are patriotic experts that in fact care for the country a lot and they deliver every day the best of themselves.So the fact that they are given the opportunity to be in politics; they never should forget that there are so many others who deserve to be in politics but they didn’t have the chance to be there. So we need to see from them the maximum possible so that they, in fact don’t are in debt with all those others that did have all the capacity to became someone, but they won’t see their capacity in this positions in their lives.
Alice Taylor: Very wise words. Linda, Thank you.
Linda Rama: Thank you very much, Alice!
Watch full interview:
