During the day, Prime Minister Edi Rama said he expects the Constitutional Court to return Erion Veliaj to office "to run the headless city." A clear political, but also personal, message that comes at a time when relations between the two once closest people in the Socialist Party appear frozen.
While Rama was asking Veliaj out to “serve Tirana,” Veliaj, in his “message” from his cell, chose not to mention the prime minister at all. He thanked the people, justice, and even the “compass of the state” — but not the man who until yesterday stood by his side in every battle.
Now it seems the roles have been reversed. Rama, who once seemed to have abandoned Veliaj in the midst of the storm, is looking for a glimmer of hope from the same man who once served as his signature political conviction. Veliaj, on the other hand, is trying to show that he can survive without the prime minister’s “umbrella.”
Was the ice melting between them today, or was it all part of a familiar game to maintain power, each in their own way?
In political Albania, friendships last as long as public statements — and today, the two spoke, but for the first time, not about each other.
