Former President Ilir Meta has expressed support for the Democratic Party’s publicly announced proposal on Territorial Reform, which calls for increasing the number of municipalities.
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In a social media post, the president of the Freedom Party described the opposition’s proposal for 100 local government units as the most effective response to what he called the failure of the 2014 territorial reform.
According to Meta, the 2014 reform produced results contrary to the promises made, as it moved services farther away from citizens and contributed to a significant increase in depopulation across many historic, prosperous regions with development potential. He added that municipalities were filled with political operatives, while many powers were taken away from local government units and placed under the government’s control.
Meta said Edi Rama’s undermining of the consensus was a long-established practice and that only the naive could be surprised by it.
He opposed the majority’s proposal, saying that the “Renaissance” project seeks to strengthen centralization by significantly reducing the number of municipalities, moving services even farther away from citizens and exacerbating Albania’s depopulation.
In his assessment, the opposition’s proposal aims to promote decentralization and bring services closer to citizens, and should therefore be supported throughout the country. Meta said this alternative is in the interests of citizens and residents of the communities that would benefit from it.
The Freedom Party president also described the opposition’s project as an important contribution to curbing depopulation and promoting policies aimed at repopulating the country.
Finally, Meta called for the proposal to be presented to all Albanians, in every city and municipality, so that every citizen can learn about the project that, according to him, would end the corrupt and mafia-style centralization of local government in Edi Rama’s hands.
