Protests and violent clashes in Tirana have drawn the attention of Italian media. In an article published by Il Foglio, the political and economic situation in Albania is analyzed, focusing on the urban development of the capital, the relationship between political power and real estate investors, as well as citizens’ dissatisfaction with corruption and unequal benefits from economic growth.
An important part of the analysis is devoted to the book “The Albanian Files: Freedom and Architecture,” a publication on architecture with a preface by Prime Minister Edi Rama, which presents Tirana as a laboratory for some of the most renowned international architects.
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According to the article, the book, conceived as a positive presentation of the capital’s urban transformation, has turned into a political boomerang for Rama.
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Albania is on the front pages of newspapers because of the violent clashes shaking Tirana. The images resemble those of youth revolts in France or Italy, but it would be a mistake to confuse them. Albania is still going through its first great capitalist transformation after communism. The protests express anger at corruption and at an economic development model whose benefits many citizens do not feel.
Yet this story contains a lesson that touches us very closely. To understand it, we must start with the book The Albanian Files: Freedom and Architecture (Dosjet shqiptare: Liria dhe Arkitektura), an illustrated publication on architecture, with a preface by Prime Minister Edi Rama, which recounts how Tirana has been transformed into a laboratory for some of the world’s most important architects: a book effusive in its praise, which has turned into a political boomerang.
Rama was mayor of Tirana from 2000 to 2011 and has been prime minister since 2013. He has turned urban transformation into a symbol of his governance. In the book’s preface, Rama explains that architecture does not serve only to transform spaces, but also people’s mentality and their confidence in the future. According to him, Albania attracts great architects because it offers a freedom that no longer exists in other countries. A freedom from “no,” from rules and restrictions that in European countries make construction difficult.
The problem is that Rama’s opponents have read the book in a completely different way: as a catalog of relationships between political power, real estate investors and international designers.
Some architects recount with astonishing candor how they arrived in Albania. Some received an Instagram message directly from Rama, some a phone call, while others were introduced through people close to the prime minister.
The Guardian has reported on the existence of a WhatsApp group called “Albanian ArchArmy,” where well-known international architects share projects and contacts with the Albanian political world.
The paradox is that all of this happens openly, in plain sight. The prime minister promotes architects, renowned architects talk about their relationships with the government, while the book publishes projects and investors’ names. This does not constitute judicial proof of corruption, but it transparently presents a system in which politics, urban planning and the real estate business are closely intertwined.
Naturally, Tirana is an extreme case, with little in common with Italy. It is the capital of a country trying to recover from decades of isolation and is the dominant center of national economic and political life, almost a city-state.
Rama exercises an exceptionally long political influence over time, moving from running the capital to running the government and taking with him also powers over urban planning and construction permits.
But, in essence, the economic mechanism is the same as the one observed in many European cities, including Italian ones. Institutions and the level of development differ, but the fundamental question remains the same: Who benefits from the growth and development of cities, and who is left out of this process?
In Albania, conflict accompanies the creation of a new market economy. In Italy, the conflict appears at a more advanced stage. Our cities are already rich and real estate markets are consolidated. But rising property values can turn into a powerful mechanism of exclusion.
Milan is the clearest example. Housing prices are rising much faster than incomes. Even those who have a regular job and middle-class incomes struggle to buy a home or afford rent. For young people and those from families without inherited wealth, even entering the middle class becomes difficult.
It is precisely here that the real estate issue connects with inequality. It is not only how much you earn from work that matters, but also whether you own a home or inherit one.
Rising property values enrich those who are already owners, while raising costs for those who do not own real estate. A city can become more beautiful, more international and more attractive to capital, but at the same time less affordable for the people who work and live there.
The lesson to be drawn is that transparent rules and instruments are needed to enable society to capture part of the economic value created by urban transformations.
Otherwise, the citizens’ reaction is inevitable, but here lies an essential difference: In Albania, people protest against a model that promises the creation of a new middle class. In our country, the risk is that the same model may end up excluding even the middle class that already exists.
