Edi Rama

July 4, 1964

Albanian painter and Socialist politician, Mayor of Tirana from 2000 to 2011 and Prime Minister of Albania since 2013.

Biography

Edi Rama was born in Tirana in 1964, the son of a well-known sculptor. A gifted painter, he also played professional basketball, studied at the Academy of Arts in Tirana from 1982 and then taught there, using student meetings to criticise the communist regime. In 1994 he moved to France to work as an artist.

In 1998 he became minister of culture, youth and sports, and in 2000 he was elected mayor of Tirana, where he demolished illegal buildings and had grey apartment blocks repainted in bright colours, winning the World Mayor Prize in 2004. He was re-elected twice before losing narrowly in 2011.

He became chairman of the Socialist Party in 2005 and led it to victory in the 2013 parliamentary election, becoming prime minister. He won again in 2017, 2021 and 2025, the first Albanian prime minister to win four consecutive terms, and also served as foreign minister in 2019-2020 and as OSCE chairman in 2020. His tenure has seen economic growth and the launch of the Open Balkan initiative, but also accusations of democratic backsliding and autocratic rule.