Albania’s parliament has approved a new government dominated by women, which aims to return the country to economic growth, focusing on tourism and agriculture, infrastructure and energy, according to the Associated Press.
After 20 hours of debate, the 140-seat parliament voted 77 to 53 against the new cabinet and Prime Minister Eddie Rama’s government program.
The Left Socialist Party won a record third of the seats in the April 25 parliamentary elections, winning 74 seats. The main opposition center-right Democratic Party won 59 seats.
Rama, 57, boasted in his speech that the new government would go down in history as the cabinet with the largest number of women – 12 in a cabinet of 17 members, which would put Albania at the top of the world list for the percentage of women in public office.
The main tasks for the government will be to complete the post-earthquake recovery process in 2019 and fight the pandemic and its impact on the economy, as well as fight corruption and drug trafficking, increase growth to at least 4% per year, raise wages and reduce unemployment. Rama wants to make Albania the “absolute champion of tourism in the Balkans” by 2030.
Albania, with a population of 2.8 million, has been a member of NATO since 2009 and hopes to start EU accession talks later this year.