In an interview with Euronews Albania, Linda Rama, wife of Prime Minister Edi Rama, shared her personal experiences and the challenges she faced during the early years of Albania\u2019s post-communist transition, particularly through her work in state administration in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n
Rama explained that she began her professional journey in 1993, shortly after the fall of the communist regime, working at the National Privatization Agency, one of the key institutions navigating the country\u2019s most delicate reforms, especially those related to property ownership.<\/p>\n
Speaking with journalist Alice Taylor, Rama recalled the difficulties of that period, as well as the unique opportunity she had to engage with former political prisoners and property owners, an experience that deepened her understanding of people and their stories.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re talking about 1993, just two or three years after the fall of communism. At the time, I was involved in two international projects focused on the economic challenges faced by transitional countries. When I joined the agency, I initially thought only about economic reform. But very quickly, I came to understand the complexity of the entire process. I had the rare and fortunate opportunity to meet many different interest groups, former political prisoners, people who had been imprisoned by the regime, former landowners and building owners, workers, and administrators. I\u2019ve always felt grateful for that experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rama emphasized that the privatization of state property and the redistribution of land were among the most critical reforms shaping Albania\u2019s transition.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeyond the crises of the time, such as food shortages or efforts to maintain public order, these two processes laid the foundation for future investment, justice, and social peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also spoke about the dreams Albanians held for the West during the early years of transition and reflected on the psychological toll that decades of communist brainwashing had taken on previous generations.<\/p>\n
Interview:<\/strong><\/p>\n Alice Taylor:<\/strong> Linda, welcome to \u201cInside Albania\u201d. Thank you for joining me today.<\/p>\n Linda Rama:<\/strong> Yeah, thank you for having me, Alice. And I want to do this. Like you do it, because I like that very much.<\/p>\n Alice Taylor:<\/strong> When we do the next one, I’ll get you to come and do it a cameo.<\/p>\n Linda Rama:<\/strong> I will\u2026 it\u2019s a pleasure to come again here.<\/p>\n Alice Taylor:<\/strong> Now, I want to approach this interview sort of in a chronological order, in a way sort of starting at the beginning. I mean, you worked at the National Privatization Agency very early in Albania’s transition, in the very early \u201890s. And I guess that starts from the beginning, it was a difficult time. It was a turbulent time turning from communism into this free market economy and it was very difficult. What was the most significant challenge for you at that time and what, looking back, may you have done differently?<\/p>\n Linda Rama:<\/strong> We are talking for 1993. So I started to work there just two years, two or three years, after the communism fell. And meantime, I was at that moment part of two projects, international projects that were dealing with economic issues of countries in transition. It was an international project. And in fact, when I entered, when I started to work for the agency, I was thinking only about the economic reform. And there I understood the complexity of the whole process. So, I had the opportunity, the rare opportunity, and I feel lucky, always felt lucky for that, to meet so different groups of interest and so many different people that were interested in privatization at that time. So I met political prisoners and other prisoners because of the regime. I met ex-owners of the lands and buildings. I met workers and managers of the state owned enterprises. There, I met, in fact, also investors, the first international foreign investors coming, interested to participate in the process, and also the first Albanian investors. And, in fact, that was the moment when also I had my first contact with politics, in terms of governing and institutions, but also in terms of political figures of that time. So I entered as an economist in the privatization agency, but in fact I went out from the agency as someone very much thinking in terms of people. That was an amazing reform. Beyond the emergency, about food crisis and beyond the efforts to keep the public safety under control in those years, I think that privatization of the state property and land distribution were the two most important reforms that defined the whole transition in the country and they defined the trend of investments and justice and also the social peace. What we can do differently, you asked?! I’ve been thinking about that over time. I have found some peace in my heart and in my mind, because more and more I think about that… I believe that maybe this was the only way we could have done it, considering the fact that we were coming from two very unfortunate historical influences. One was from the influence of Ottoman Empire. We were the largest, let’s say, the farthest periphery of the Ottoman Empire in a very deep backwardness. And the second was the communist regime. Five decades of communist regime would not have come without a cost. And this was the cost, I think, we had to pay. It’s very hard for me to believe that there was another way those years.<\/p>\n Alice Taylor:<\/strong> Because it\u2019s like, in one way you had a blank slate,but at the same time you had all the remnants of particularly the communist regime. It’s not like the communist regime and all its power just evaporated overnight. It must have been difficult to go in and to turn things on their head and to find that blank slate to sort of start with. Is that a fair assessment?<\/p>\n Linda Rama:<\/strong> Yeah, it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n Alice Taylor:<\/strong> Or a lot of obstacles, sort of in a way people not wanting that level of change\u2026<\/p>\n Linda Rama:<\/strong> All people dreamt for the change, but they didn\u2019t know what the change was. So, they dreamt to be free of communism but \u2018free\u2019 was not in the way we know now, of what freedom is. It was a need to be relieved from the full pressure that they were under for 5 decades. And very extreme or poor economic conditions and the way the life we were having, especially after \u201880s. So they just needed to get rid of that. And meantime, more isolated you are, more dreams you build and you see that the rest of the world is without problems.We thought at that time that on one hand, let’s say, the party and the state of that time was telling, brainwashing us, how big we were, how unbeatable we were, how strong we were, how we were the best of the world. All this kind of brainwashing signals and work and on the other side we knew that another life was beyond, we felt proud for what we were doing there, but at the same time we were building in our imagination another world that, in fact, was so developed, but at the same time threatening,\u00a0 with opportunities but at the same time very risky. Because it was all the time you had to face things that you knew in one reality, and a reality that was shown to you. And this was the only reality we knew. And on the other hand, having signals about the world here and there from those who were abroad. Silent signals, that built to us a different reality. That was chaotic and confusing for peoples mind.<\/p>\n Watch full interview:<\/strong><\/p>\n