A few hours after the Socialists approved the Territorial Reform for the merger of the country’s 15 municipalities, Parliament Speaker Niko Peleshi commented from Korça on the latest developments.
He said that the merger of Maliq with Korça will make the latter the largest municipality in the country by area, with 1462 km² and around 100 thousand inhabitants.
Despite the residents’ protests, Peleshi described the Reform as a positive development, while saying that the residents of Maliq who view the merger of their municipality with skepticism should also be “pampered.”
“According to the new map, the municipality of Korça becomes the largest municipality in Albania in terms of surface area, an area of 1462 km2, so as you know, Korça and Maliqi, the two municipalities, merge into a single large municipality and have an area, not only the largest but separated by 200 km2 more from the following municipality, which is Elbasan. The large area is not due to the large number of population, the population is now about 100 thousand inhabitants of the new municipality, but because of the large field of Korça and Maliqi that are now one field, call it the Maliqi field better to pamper a little even those who still look at the reform with skepticism. I am convinced that it is a very good thing. In the field of agriculture, they merge into one and have under administration in a geographical sense almost the entire large field of Maliqi, which is the second largest field in Albania” – said Peleshi.