Before becoming the spouse of the Prime Minister of Albania, she had invested heavily in her personal and professional development and marked many achievements in life. Over the years, Linda Rama has contributed significantly as an activist for human rights and civil society issues, especially those related to the rights of women and children. She believes that it is important to highlight the success of Albanian women in creating the best environment for them to move forward and to express themselves and to develop on each other's successes. With intelligence, integrity and intuition, she is convinced that she says that the greatest achievement in her life has been to preserve over the years and challenges intact the real sensibility of the world and the people without allowing them to be influenced by cynicism. With the dreams and ambitions of a developing generation, its timely influence on Albanian women has the potential to be extraordinary.
Below the full interview conducted by journalist Annika Simon:
Our readers are very curious, how is it to be the Prime Minister's wife?
It is a unique privilege that most people in your country believe to be guided by the man you have chosen to carry out the journey of life and to share the burden of the welfare of your children. It is a daunting responsibility, too, to make you live constantly with the weight of the wisdom that comes from the great desire to meet the expectations of people and the fear of losing their faith. It is a challenging chance to contribute to others from a particular position at a time when your country has the hopes and dreams that every day face with limits dictated by the past and countless difficulties of everyday life of people. But there is also a limitation of a very special kind, in your daily life that I would not dare to call it a sacrifice in respect to many of the people who sacrifice their positions for their children and their families, but that nevertheless condition over and over again.
What are your public engagements as the Prime Minister's wife?
The profile of the Prime Minister's wife is a personal choice. In this election, the first conviction that I have and continue to have is that the public rightly seeks and deserves the effective protagonism of the man who has voted for prime minister, not the woman or the man of the first government. Edi came to the post of prime minister 6 years ago with a reform agenda too late and equally tough. Confronting the country with a transformational agenda I believe is impressive on all the plans, it is serious both in the public and political plan, both in personal and family planning. Expectancy pressure and stress in search of results are an integral part of this confrontation. I have tried to give Edit my unspoken support, within the framework of a beneficial protagonism, without leaving it alone and at the same time without shading, but being always alone under the roof of the house, or in the light of public attention .
What is your greatest achievement in life?
I have a beautiful family, the extraordinary happiness of which our three children are. Meanwhile, unremitting efforts for education and knowledge, with persistent work and passion, have been rewarded for outstanding professional results, achieving everything I have aimed at the academic and professional plan. So, I can say that life has been generous to me. But beyond these two essential aspects I believe in anyone, I think that my greatest achievement is the preservation beyond the years of challenges, the genuinely sensitive to the world of humans, while remaining uninformed by cynicism.
You need more women entrepreneurs in Albania. In the coming months, can we hope for a more specific focus to help women become entrepreneurs? What are the things that women need to know?
The Albanian woman has never been more educated than today. Only 5% of women in our mothers generation were with higher education. Today, there are six times more girls with a university degree in the 25-39 age group. Today there are many more girls than boys who attend higher education and this would be unthinkable until not many decades ago. Currently, 30% of administrators and private business owners are women. And more than 40% of positions in the first line of management in private companies are also women. These figures are the result of a long, difficult and ongoing investment in the ever-developing and emancipating light in the past decades, serving as a guarantee and inspiration for every individual effort of women and girls today to reveal passions and their ambitions. Girls and women need to recognize and embrace their nature, together with all the potential they carry, and dare to move forward. They are doing it every day, more or less without a ban. And that is hopeful.
In Albania there is much talk about demographic problems. What is your vision for the youth of your country? What is your dream for them and your expectations for them?
Allow me to be proudly proud of more than 1 million Albanians emigrated after the 1990s for their heroic efforts in education and their children, who are today an integrated part of the societies of Europe, America and Australia. But they are undoubtedly an added value of national knowledge, regardless of geographical distances. Today, there are countless young Albanians engaged in unimaginable levels, who are also the best ambassadors of a very different Albania than the isolated one of 30 years ago. The same tremendous, heroic efforts have also characterized the parents in Albania to educate their children. Household savings figures invested in education at home or abroad are spectacular. Undoubtedly, we suffer the brain drain of the skilled labor force in today's unrestricted world with an infinite number of temptations for young people who do not expect to, but want to move towards more developing countries and opportunities. But it is a historic stage that has not only the negative aspects, but also the positive ones for the future of the country. Today's generation of Albanian youth in Albania and the world is the first to have no memory related to communism and that is completely resonating with its likeness in other countries, thanks to the era of globalization and digitalization in it who lives. This is the generation liberated from the writing complexes, with many brilliant minds inside it and with all the energy that should be invited to undertake the mission for Albania with the best democratic and developmental standards.
Albanian youth aspire to a better life than they have and better than their parents' life. What is your advice for them? Is there any lesson from your trip that you would like to share with them?
Unlike the circumstances in which the generation of our parents and ours grew and lived, children today live the time of infinite opportunities as a result of global transformation and a frantic dynamism. This ruthless stream of possibilities carries with it countless dangers as well as a high degree of unpredictability tomorrow. Uninterrupted efforts for knowledge and information, curiosity to go to the essence of things without falling into today's trap of the surface as well as maintaining and cultivating humanity and profound relationships with man and nature without being dehumanized and isolated from technology and lifestyle, are an increasingly difficult challenge for young people today, which they will need to win.
How do you see Albania's position on the world stage in the next five years?
There has been an impressive development in Albania since the '90s, and according to me, especially in the last five years, which have laid the foundation for a historic turn in relation to the return of the country to a tourist attraction. I believe that the next five years will consolidate this base, finally opening the door of sustainable development for Albania. I wish that these close years finally consolidate the European perspective with the opening and development of the accession negotiations with the European Union. Perhaps it seems to me a little bit confident that, after five years of coming, Albania will soon be separated from the shadows of the past.
