Boçi: The PS’s new territorial reform repeats the 2014 model and worsens depopulation

Democratic Party MP Luçiano Boçi said on the “First Minute” program on News24 that the majority’s draft law on territorial reform is expected to be put to a vote in Parliament on Thursday.

Boçi, who is co-chair of the commission established for this reform, said the Socialist Party’s initiative does not constitute a reform of local government, but rather a new division of the map which, he argued, will deepen the country’s depopulation.

According to the Democratic MP, the way the commission was established and the draft law presented by a group of MPs show that this is a political decision. He described the process as a repetition of the 2014 reform, something which, he said, has also been acknowledged by Rama.

Boçi recalled that in 2014 Rama aimed to create 46 47 municipalities, while the intervention of an allied party led to the addition of 15 more municipalities. He stressed that there had been no reflection on the consequences of the reform at the time, which he linked to depopulation, the lack of services and the distance between citizens and their municipality.

He said internal population movement remains at low levels, while emigration abroad reaches levels of 80 90%. According to him, only Tirana has recorded growth, with 15 thousand additional residents, while the other counties have lost a large number of inhabitants. Boçi said Albanians are leaving the country because of the lack of services and that depopulation has affected both rural and urban areas.

The DP MP linked citizens’ dissatisfaction to the lack of services, long distances and the inadequate quality of the services provided. He described the claim that Albania has a model similar to Switzerland, where residents migrate within the country, as a “public deception” or “idiotic satisfaction,” saying it is used to justify Rama’s position.

Boçi added that the DP would like to launch such an initiative, as it did with the anti-government protests, but stressed that the current protests have been organized entirely by citizens. He said the party has expanded its communication efforts and, together with municipal councils, has undertaken an initiative to collect the relevant petitions.