Edi Rama

Edi Rama
Rama in 2024
33rd Prime Minister of Albania
Assumed office
11 September 2013
PresidentBujar Nishani
Ilir Meta
Bajram Begaj
Deputy
Preceded bySali Berisha
Chairman of the Socialist Party of Albania
Assumed office
10 October 2005
Preceded byFatos Nano
Other political offices
Chairperson-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
In office
1 January 2020  1 January 2021
Preceded byMiroslav Lajčák
Succeeded byAnn Linde
40th Mayor of Tirana
In office
11 October 2000  25 July 2011
Preceded byAlbert Brojka
Succeeded byLulzim Basha
40th Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office
21 January 2019  31 December 2020
Serving with Gent Cakaj
Prime MinisterHimself
Preceded byDitmir Bushati
Succeeded byOlta Xhaçka
22nd Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports
In office
2 October 1998  26 October 2000
Prime MinisterPandeli Majko
Ilir Meta
Preceded byArta Dade
Succeeded byEsmeralda Uruçi
Personal details
Born
Edvin Kristaq Rama

(1964-07-04) 4 July 1964
Tirana, PR Albania
Political partySocialist
Spouses
Matilda Makoçi
(m. 1986; div. 1991)
    (m. 2010)
    Children
    • Greg Rama
    • Zaho Rama
    Parents
    Alma materAcademy of Arts
    Signature
    Websiteps.al/familja-jone kryeministria
    Basketball career
    Personal information
    Listed height6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)
    Career information
    High schoolJordan Misja Artistic Lyceum
    CollegeTirana University of Arts
    Career history
    Dinamo Tirana
    Albania national team

    Edi Rama (born Edvin Kristaq Rama; 4 July 1964) is an Albanian politician, artist and writer who has been serving as the 33rd and incumbent prime minister of Albania since 2013 and chairman of the Socialist Party of Albania since 2005. He was Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports from 1998 to 2000. First elected mayor of Tirana in 2000, he was reelected in 2003 and 2007.

    The coalition of centre-left parties led by Rama in the 2013 Albanian parliamentary election defeated the incumbent centre-right coalition led by Sali Berisha of the Democratic Party of Albania. Rama was appointed prime minister for a second term following the 2017 Albanian parliamentary election. Rama then won a third term following the 2021 Albanian parliamentary election in which he defeated the Democratic Party candidate Lulzim Basha for the second time in a row.

    Rama is the only Albanian prime minister in history to have won four terms in a row. His party has won all seven elections since 2013—four parliamentary ones and three local ones. Under his decade of tenure, Albania has seen economic growth but also democratic backsliding, with various sources describing his rule as autocratic. Albania has also continued to suffer from emigration.

    Rama was one of the initiators of Open Balkan, an economic zone of the Western Balkan countries intended to guarantee the "Four Freedoms".