This Wednesday, the wife of Prime Minister Edi Rama, Linda Rama, was invited to the studio of the show “Opinion”. She was asked by journalist Blendi Fevziu how much she influences the decision-making of the head of government. Linda Rama stated that she does not influence Edi Rama’s decision-making, and no one can do such a thing. According to her, his decisions are institutional decisions since he is the prime minister of the country.
Linda Rama stated that from the first moment she has stood by her profile and has a complete distance from the power of her husband as prime minister. She emphasized that the vote for prime minister is given by the people in the political collective and not by the family. And for this reason, no family member has the right to exercise political decision-making, she emphasized.
However, she admits that there is a terrain where everyone can give their opinions to a prime minister when it comes to various phenomena and she herself takes this opportunity. Linda Rama said that over time in power, Prime Minister Rama has gained more patience to listen.
Blendi Fevziu: How much influence do you have on Edi Rama’s decision-making? In addition to decision-making in the office, is there always advice or influence at home?
Linda Rama: I do not influence Edi Rama’s decision-making at any time and I think that there is no one who influences Edi Rama’s decision-making. I think Edi’s decision-making is institutional decision-making because he is the prime minister.
Blendi Fevziu: Not a decision-making that you tell him you should do this or not, but through consultations, through words, through considerations. Because if he says this person seems good to me and you tell him that this person does not do it, that is influence.
Linda Rama: In no case. Zero cases.
Blendi Fevziu: There are many in the SP who think that they have ruined their career because of you, just as there are many others who say…
Linda Rama: I do not prevent people from thinking what they want to think. What I have in my hand, my word, I never do because it would diminish the reason why I try to be who I am. The decisions, I think, are Ed’s because the responsibility is Ed’s. Second, I want to think that the decisions are institutional and are shared with the entire spectrum of political or administrative decision-makers.
Blendi Fevziu: We are reaching a society not only in the SP, but in general where we have strong leaders and people who mainly make you feel cool. Mainly because I cannot go into them one by one. Now I will ask you, it does not come to me, for example, I feel embarrassed when I hear political people who talk about Rama saying KM, about Berisha the doctor, with an extraordinary adoration. Don’t you feel embarrassed? For example, does this not bother you personally? There are no people who come around you, who are servile to you because you are the wife of the prime minister more than you are a professional?
Linda Rama: No. This does not happen to me because from the beginning I have separated my profile very well and I have stuck to my profile that I will have a complete distance from Edi’s power.
Blendi Fevziu: How do you maintain this distance?
Linda Rama: I maintain it on a daily basis with extraordinary resistance and understanding. That is possible. If you are going to tell me that there is a moment that is the opposite of what I say after 11 years that Edi has been in power, then I will say that it is truly impossible. I maintain it because I believe it. And I believe it because it is necessary. And it is necessary because it is what the people actually do when they vote, when they give their vote to the prime minister, they do not give it to the collective, they give it to the political collective, they do not give it to the family collective. And as long as it is given to the family collective, no family member has the right to exercise political decision-making. This is what I believe.
Blendi Fevziu: Of course, but in order to influence this, don’t you share it, through advice, through a consideration?
Linda Rama: Advice for every prime minister is institutional. In the role of prime minister, you can’t believe how much there is the opportunity to be advised from an institutional point of view with anyone.
Blendi Fevziu: Are you asking about economic issues, for example?
Linda Rama: I am not Edit’s subordinate. Advice is institutional, but there is a terrain, simply to clarify this issue of advice. There is a terrain, of course, where everyone can find a way to give their opinions, even to the prime minister, Edit in my case, but to the prime minister in other cases, about what they think about different phenomena and I take this opportunity. I take it because I think that there are cases when I find phenomena, events, that I would like to convey my opinion to, and I find the moment when I can have the attention to convey it. I take time to think more deeply, I get opinions… There are times when I don’t say I don’t like your decision, but I ask questions and from the questions it is understood that there is no better way to convey a dilemma or an uncertain situation than to seem to ask questions. If you ask the right questions, you understand that there are reservations about the other person’s opinion. Sometimes I also tell him observations… I don’t expect Edi to react. Over time, I have realized that at that moment, Edi is generally invested in listening. It seems like he doesn’t listen, but I personally think that Edi has exponentially increased his patience to listen. Edi has increased his willingness to listen. It seems like he is not attentive and you can hear after a few days of synthesizing a moment of the conversation because those days have given him the opportunity to reflect and make it his own. I am convinced that this happens to others as well.
