Albanian PM Edi Rama on Putin, Macron, and combating corruption

Alastair and Rory are joined by Edi Rama, the Prime Minister of Albania, to talk Putin, Merkel, Macron, the European Union, small boats, cyber attacks from Iran, and much, much more. Tune in to hear how the 'third way' inspired Edi's journey from life as an artist in Paris to a three-time election-winning prime minister.
Become a member of The Rest Is Politics Plus to support the podcast, enjoy ad-free listening, and receive early access to live show tickets and Question Time episodes. Just head to therestispolitics.com to sign up.
Blackpool live show tickets:Saturday 8th October: wintergardensblackpool.co.uk/events/the-rest-is-politics-live/
Instagram:@restispolitics
Twitter:@RestIsPolitics
Email:[e-mail]
Producer: Dom JohnsonExec Producers: Tony Pastor + Jack Davenport

[@AX_Mk2]

That was outstanding! Thank you to PM Rama for taking his time to come on and share with us.

[@sentinalchicken07]

Such an interesting interview. Thank you. I‘ve learnt a lot about Albania

[@MrKiwifruit2011]

Edi sounds so down to earth and real!

[@MrBileDuct]

OMG I want to live in Albania - this PM is amazing. A leader who is honest, has a sense of humour, open, realistic, an artist, a realist. What a guy!

[@Charlie-UK]

I don't think you do. There is a reason why most of the people crossing the Channel illegally are Albanian. The national minimum wage in Albania remaines fixed at €268.6 per month...

[@MrBileDuct]

@@Charlie-UK I might just scrape by with my pension as it is slightly more than the minimum wage there. However - spoiler alert - I was making a light-hearted comparison between Edi Rama and our own politicians - I'm not really thinking of relocating based on a few words of any politician.

[@ShoqataKelmendi]

Commies are great deceivers

[@GoldenEagle0007]

​@@Charlie-UKmany people don't like him but i have to be honest he hasn't done a bad job even though he could do much better

[@oblivionzzzmike]

@@Charlie-UKthat’s not true buddy, respectfully. The minimum wage is €400. Yet many issues in the country certainly need addressing.

[@Jeff-dv9jl]

The Prime Minister's explanation of the statecraft needed to deal with Serbia wisely was educational and highly appreciated. Thank you!

[@stefkadragoeva130]

‘Something that cannot happen anywhere else, but can happen only in the Balkans - you go to bury your father and you become Minister of Culture’.. as someone from the Balkans, I laughed hard😂

[@edwardhudson9851]

Love this podcast chaps,keep up the good work.Alistair can I ask your views on Aljazeera's latest investigative work on the Labour Files please

[@Bettys_Eldest]

This is a week old, less than 5k views on KZbin and 159 likes. Where is everybody? Edi Rama was a breath of fresh air. Why so few views?

[@huwzebediahthomas9193]

Scandalous. 👍

[@huwzebediahthomas9193]

Been meaning to find these chats in a while, Rory and Ally. Hi Ally again - remember me? 😎👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

[@Bettys_Eldest]

Might I suggest Mhairi Black, a fellow Scot for interview. Great to see such political passion from one so young.

[@huwzebediahthomas9193]

Cough, might need subtitles. (for the English Home Counties Tories, cough, that is...) 🙂🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

[@youknow6968]

I think he's the first sensible politician I've heard speak on the east of Europe, not that I've heard many. He sounds interesting, quiet likeable.

[@DarkEagle99]

Albania naming the street where the russian embassy was situated to free Ukraine had me in tears!

[@georgesotiriou7051]

Interesting guy.

[@dmd9080]

Can you try and interview Ruth Davidson?

[@xavierhucklenbruch1798]

Rory... get sir John major. Mark Rutte. Gerard schroeder.

[@owenedmonds]

Hmm maybe Gerhard Schröder isn’t the best person to have on right now in light of Ukraine due to his supposed pro-russian stance. Regardless though, very interesting political figure and Bundeskanzler.

[@gilleek2]

Some great analogies in that PM. Some marriages do indeed work eh.

[@huwzebediahthomas9193]

The Picasso of Politics, his book of his doodles should be called, if... 🙂

[@labilabi678]

Not sure why but I find the talk of Rory typical of new breed of conservative political party , missing the big picture . He mentions significant corruption and crime in Albania even he spent time in Montenegro and region where Albanians are everywhere . Had he red a bit more and paid attention to what Prime-minister said he would have known that Albania was the north Corea of Europe under communism ! Further , after 90s the state failed completely and in 97 total caos broke ! Since then Albania has improved significantly and dies not deserve the description as very corrupt and organised crime ! Otherwise Rory need to state the same about Italy ! Labelling a country as corrupt requires a clear perspective ! What gets me is that Albania’s crime is being used as scapegoat in British politics to justify the failure of immigration policy of tories ! Albania’s crime is no exception to any other crime but we do not hear other nations being labelled. The issue is that we honest and hard working Albanians are paying e very dear price for being labelled and so are the hard working Albanians in the Balkans ! Are we Albanians so bad as to cause terrorism , kill with polonium in London, control mega financial crimes ! Crime does not të present nation as otherwise we have to drop being called humans any more !

[@chortler]

Gents, you really need to stop saying extraordinary so much

[@oblivionzzzmike]

Practically the dude keeps on promoting himself.