Faced with unprecedented anti-government protests, Edi Rama has chosen to go on the offensive, to the public unease of several MPs and ex-officials from his own Socialist Party.
Fjori Sinoruka
In mid-June, as protesters marched against the Albanian government, the youngest member of parliament made an announcement.
“From today I am an independent MP,” 26-year-old Marjana Koceku wrote on Facebook. “My ideals and values are those that I have had and expressed since before I was associated with a party. They define my boundaries.”
Koceku’s decision to desert the ruling Socialist Party of Prime Minister Edi Rama represents the strongest sign yet of the depth of unease within the party over Rama’s handling of the protests.
Days later, rubbing salt into the wound, Koceku was spotted among the protesters.
She is not the only current or former Socialist Party official to criticise the hostility Rama has adopted towards an outpouring of popular anger over accusations that laws have been bent to pave the way for a luxury tourism development linked to Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump.
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