Former minister and Socialist Party MP, Elisa Spiropali, has published the document she submitted to the SP General Assembly, regarding the motion to open a national dialogue on the "New Deal for Albania".

In her document, Spiropali calls for more democracy within the party, a clear separation between the state and politics, and a public administration that serves citizens and not individuals with power.

She emphasizes that civic energy should not be seen as a threat, but as an opportunity for reflection and self-correction. Spiropali writes that protests should not be suppressed or ignored, but should serve as a moment of reflection for the majority.

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Following media interest, I am sharing with you the Document that I sent today to the National Assembly of the Socialist Party, open to all members and all citizens.
***Prime Minister and Chairman of the Socialist Party Edi RAMA
National Assembly of the Socialist Party
Socialist Party Membership
Socialist Party Parliamentary Group
MOTION FOR THE OPENING OF THE NATIONAL DIALOGUE ON THE NEW AGREEMENT FOR ALBANIA

PART I
Albania has entered a crucial historical, political and social moment. Institutions are functioning, the economy continues to grow and democratic processes are developing regularly. However, Albanian society is seeking a new phase of its democracy: more representation, more participation, more trust in institutions, more social justice and a fairer relationship between the citizen and the state.
This is a demand that cannot be ignored. In a mature democracy, civic energy is not seen as a threat, but as an opportunity for reflection, self-correction, improvement.

Democratic societies are not strengthened by silencing critical voices, but by creating institutions that know how to listen, understand, and respond to them with reforms.
This is precisely what the times we are living in are demanding. Not less democracy, but more democracy. Not more control, but more trust. Not more personalization of power, but institutions stronger than individuals. Not privilege, but merit. Not closure, but competition. Not complacency, but self-correction. More humility, less arrogance.

Albanian society demands more competition and less privilege. More merit and less personal loyalty. More institutions and less personalization. More representation and less centralization of decision-making. More economic competition, less favoritism. It demands a state where the law is above power and where power is not identified with anyone.

This is the democratic culture we need to build. The transition from the culture of the individual to the culture of the institution. From the administration of power to the self-limitation of power. From the belief that the majority is always right, to the belief that democracy is strengthened only when power accepts control, criticism, and correction.
For weeks, a civic energy has been emerging on the streets of Tirana that seeks to be represented. A political and social mobilization, especially from the younger generation, that cannot be ignored without consequences.
The ruling majority should not see this as a noise to be suppressed and ignored, but as a moment of reflection for Albanian democracy. We believe that every democratic society becomes stronger when institutions have the courage to listen to their citizens, even when they express dissatisfaction, demand change or challenge the way power is exercised.

Our responsibility is not to judge this voice. Our responsibility is to listen to it, to understand it, and to respond to it with more democracy, more representation, more accountability, and more trust. This is where the reason for this motion begins.
In these years, Albania has built political stability, stronger institutions and a more developed economy. But every political model has its own cycle. The system that built stability does not necessarily produce more representation, more competition and more space for the new energies of society.
The 2008 political agreement served the institutional stability of its time. Today, the limits of that model have become apparent. It no longer creates the same space for competition, contestation, and participation that Albanian society requires.

Albania does not need a new transition. It needs a new phase of its democracy. A phase where economic development goes hand in hand with political democratization; where power accepts its limits; where institutions gain more authority than individuals; where meritocracy takes the place of privilege; where the state is strengthened through self-correction and not through self-defense.
It is precisely for this reason that the opening of the National Dialogue for the New Deal for Albania is proposed.
Not as a party document nor as a governing program, but as a national process that aims to renew the relationship between the state, institutions, politics, and citizens.

This process must begin with a willingness to reform the way power is exercised, to strengthen institutions, to expand representation, to restore trust, and to create a new political culture, where self-purification is a sign of strength, not weakness.
Only a Socialist Party that reforms itself can ask Albanians for a new agreement with the state. Only a Socialist Party that paves the way for new energies, new representation, can respond with credibility to the message coming from society. Only a Socialist Party that demands responsibility from those who exercise power in its name can be competitive and victorious, not because of the strength of power, but because of its ideas, credibility and values.
Therefore, we propose that this process not be limited only to the political direction of the Socialist Party, but be subject to open consultation with its entire membership.
Albania needs a new agreement with its citizens. The Socialist Party has the obligation to first make its new agreement with itself. Only in this way can we overcome the crisis of power, regain the trust of the citizens and respond with democratic responsibility to the voice that is heard today on the streets of Albania.
Based on this conviction, Socialists must undertake commitments to themselves.

PART II
The Socialist Party's commitments to itself

No New Deal for Albania can be credible if it does not start from the Socialist Party itself, the country's governing majority. The change we seek for Albania must start from the way we organize ourselves, how we compete and how we exercise political responsibility within ourselves. For this reason, the Socialist Party undertakes these commitments.
1. To become the most democratic party in Albania.
The democracy we seek for the state must begin with our own political organization.
2. To guarantee free, competitive and periodic elections at every level of organization.
No function should be permanent and no responsibility should be non-competitive.
3. To restore debate as a political culture, away from extreme personalization and closed decision-making.
Socialist Party forums should be places where ideas are confronted, not simply where decisions are approved.
4. To guarantee the representation of different political opinions, currents and sensitivities within the democratic left.
Pluralism of ideas is a source of strength, not a cause of weakness.
5. To build meritocracy as a fundamental rule of political promotion.
A political career should be based on work, integrity, knowledge, and public contribution.
6. Create more space for the new generation.
Young people should not only be participants in campaigns, but participants in decision-making.
7. Strengthen the autonomy of its forums and organizations.
Party organizations must have a real role in shaping policies and not function solely as mobilization structures.
8. Promote the ethics of public responsibility.
Political positions are not a privilege. They are a responsibility to citizens and to the Socialist Party itself.
9. Establish transparency as a standard of decision-making.
Important political decisions must be built on consultation, argument, and accountability.
10. To remain a party that constantly reforms itself.
History has shown that parties do not weaken when they change; they weaken when they believe they no longer need to change.
11. To clearly separate the Party from the State.
The Socialist Party is committed to strengthening the distinction between political organization and state administration. The administration must serve the law and citizens, not political cycles or individuals in power. This is a condition for a modern state and a credible democracy.
Only a party that has the courage to reform itself can ask Albania to enter a new phase of democratic development.
It is precisely on this conviction that we propose the Commitments for the New Deal for Albania.

PART III

Commitments for Albania in the Next Decade

European Albania is not just our political destination. It is the model of the state we want to build, and the way we want Albanians to live. An Albania where every citizen feels free, represented and protected by the law. An Albania where democracy is measured by the quality of institutions, the separation of powers and the trust that citizens have in their state. This is precisely the Albania that the New Deal for Albania aims to embody.

Albania has entered a new stage in its history. The last thirty-five years have been years of building democracy, a market economy, institutions and the country's European orientation. We have a much more developed economy than the one we inherited at the beginning of the transition. Albania is today stronger, more open and more secure than in any other period of its democratic history.

But every historical stage also brings its own questions. Today's Albania no longer seeks only development. It seeks a different quality of state. It seeks a democracy that listens more, institutions that are more trusted, justice that acts more freely and a government that has the courage to limit itself. It seeks an economic model away from polarization and clientelism, closer to equality of opportunity.

Therefore, we believe that the time has come to open a new national process, not to write another political program, nor to produce a party document, but to build a new agreement of trust between the state and the citizen.
This agreement does not start from the question of who will govern Albania, but from the question of how Albania should be governed in the coming decades.
This motion opens the National Dialogue process for the drafting of the New Deal for Albania, which will be presented for public debate to citizens, universities, experts, business, civil society organizations, the diaspora, and all political forces.
We believe that this agreement should be built on several fundamental commitments that will serve as the axis of the national debate.
A European Albania begins with national and local elections that produce trust, institutions that deserve trust, and a state that limits its power through law. It is on this philosophy that the following commitments are built:
1. Choices that produce trust
The first commitment is to build a state that knows how to set limits on itself. Albania no longer needs to build power. It needs to build mechanisms that control power. The strength of a democracy is not measured by the concentration of authority, but by the ability to distribute it in strong and independent institutions.
2. A democracy that listens
The second commitment is a democracy that listens. Protests, opposition, media, universities and civil society are not obstacles to the state. They are the means by which the state corrects itself. Democracy is not weakened by criticism. It is weakened when it loses the ability to listen to it.
3. Parliament at the center of democratic life
The third commitment is to return Parliament to the center of democratic life. The Parliamentary Republic is not measured by the number of votes a majority has, but by the quality of debate, control over government, and the ability to build agreements that serve the public interest.
4. Independent justice and the fight against impunity, corruption and crime
The fight against corruption, abuse and impunity is no longer just a criminal process. It is the moral foundation on which trust in the state is built. Justice must be free to investigate anyone and politics must learn to live with this normality. Corruption is not fought only in the prosecutor's office and in the courtroom, but must be inextricably linked to political responsibility for good governance.
5. The final separation between state and party.
Public administration must build its professional identity, based on merit, knowledge and responsibility. The state cannot change its face after each political cycle. Individuals, business, society, must be free to act without the coercion of power or powerful individuals.
6. Professional administration at the service of the citizen. Freeing public administration from the culture of privilege
A public official should bear more responsibility than power. Trust in the state is not built by protecting leaders, but by making them more accountable to citizens, away from arrogance, corruption, and abuse.
7. Economy of competition and merit
Competition should have more weight than proximity to politics. The state should not choose winners, but should guarantee equal rules, legal certainty and a market where success depends on work, efficiency, innovation, entrepreneurship.
8. Education that builds merit.
Albania cannot build its future by losing the best of its talents every year. Education must be the place where meritocracy is born and where every young person feels that their future can be built in their own country.
9. Health with dignity
Investment in infrastructure is necessary. But trust is only built when citizens feel that the system treats them with the same respect and equality.
10. Free media
A strong democracy does not need media that vindicates power, but media that has the freedom, opportunity, and authority to hold it accountable.
11. Electoral system that restores representation.
We need an electoral and political system that guarantees broader representation, fairer competition, real opportunities for new ideas, energy, and alternatives.
The closed system stemming from the 2008 Agreement is alive, but its positive effects for the country are dead. We should aim for a National Proportional System with open lists, preceded by internal democratizing processes of political parties.
12. A new political culture
We need a new political culture. A culture where power is not identified with eternity, where the opponent is not treated as an enemy, where compromise is not considered weakness, and where change is not expected as a threat, but as a condition for the development of a healthy democracy.
This agreement does not aim to replace the Constitution, political programs, or the identity of political forces. It aims to build a new consensus on how the modern Albanian state should function in the decades to come.
European Albania is not built only by meeting European Union standards. It is built when these standards become the daily culture of institutions, politics, and the relationship between the state and the citizen.
Albania does not need a new electoral contract, but a new contract of trust. A contract within which development goes hand in hand with democracy, economy with justice, power with self-restraint, freedom with responsibility.
With this conviction, we propose that the Socialist Party open the National Dialogue on the New Deal for Albania.
We invite every citizen, every institution, and every political force to become part of this process.
The New Deal for Albania does not begin with the promise to change the country. It begins with a serious commitment to changing the way power is exercised.
We believe that this governing majority and the Socialist Party have the opportunity to win through value and not force.
Let's do our best to put the state above the party and Albania above everything.

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