Now that the fever of changes in the government has gripped not only ministers and ministerial candidates, but has also rapidly descended into the corridors of the administration, the question is no longer whether Edi Rama will make changes, but who will be in and who will be out of the next government picture.
And before September 5th, when the changes are expected, the prime minister has decided to take the ministers with him to Pogradec.
This weekend, the government cabinet will hold a "retreat", where ministers will officially report on the work done. Unofficially, Pogradec can also serve as a kind of waiting room for those who still do not know whether they will write the next report from the ministry or from home.
Rama will, of course, listen to the reports. But, knowing how these meetings work, he will likely also have time to read between the lines, the faces and the silences: who is "cheating", who is tired and, above all, who is prepared to stay longer than the prime minister anticipates.
With the latter, the accounts are expected to be settled a week later.
The Socialist Party Assembly is expected on September 5th, and the atmosphere there will no longer be the calm one of Pogradec. It will be the day when "heads" will also be cut.
Sources within Edi Rama's cabinet told VNA that those most exposed to the prime minister's "arrows of Zeus" are the Ministries of Interior, Agriculture and Environment.
So, in Pogradec, some ministers can enjoy the lake, but not necessarily the weekend.
Not out of focus for the changes is the Minister of Health, Evis Sala, who the media reported a few days ago had submitted her resignation to the Prime Minister. And, as the old saying goes, where there is a voice, there is a voice.
But Evis Sala's story seems to have a somewhat more elegant ending than that of his departing colleagues.
Due to her long-standing friendly ties with her family, Sala is not expected to be thrown into the "bin of oblivion" of the fourth term of ministers. According to the rumors circulating, she could be appointed to head an important institute, likely the tumor institute, which Ms. Sala herself introduced just a few days ago.
So, leaving the government, like many other things in politics, is not the same for everyone.
These are the words circulating in the cabinet and administration. The final names, however, will remain that way until Rama decides to make them public.
And maybe that's where the most interesting part will be.
Because when the changes are announced in front of the cameras, there will be no need to hear many statements. It will be enough to see the faces in the Assembly hall: those who have just received a ministry, those who have just lost it, and those who until the last second believed they would keep it.
Their gestures will say much more than the dumbness of a party that already obeys the first messenger.
