One of the most sensational political moves of recent years is being prepared in the offices of the Prime Minister’s Office.
The former Democratic Party MP, former candidate for the Municipality of Durrës and one of Rama’s strongest opponents in Parliament, is returning to politics right next to the Prime Minister with whom she once clashed fiercely from the rostrum of Parliament.
From Sali Berisha to Edi Rama. From the DP to Top Story. From “being a piece of shit” in Parliament to the opportunity to become Deputy Prime Minister. This is the political journey that makes the exclusive information of Publik Media one of the most unusual developments in Albanian politics.
According to exclusive sources from Publik Media, Rama has selected Grida Duma for the position of deputy prime minister, while meetings held in recent days in Pogradec have brought possible cabinet changes back into the spotlight.
In this way, the story of Grida Duma is taking a turn that a few years ago would have seemed impossible.
She was part of Sali Berisha’s government.
He was one of the important figures of the Democratic Party.
He ran for the Municipality of Durrës.
She was a member of parliament and vice president of the Democratic Party.
He publicly clashed with Edi Rama in Parliament.
In one of the most sensational moments of these clashes, he addressed the prime minister with the words “you are a piece of shit.”
He then left active politics.
It has been on television.
He has hosted one of the most important political shows in the country.
And now, according to our sources, it may be Edi Rama who is bringing him back into politics, but this time in a second position in the Albanian government.
And now the “icing on the cake” is happening, the most spectacular turn in the career of an Albanian politician.
From university and the screen to the door of politics
Grida Duma’s political history did not begin with a classic party career.
She had previously built an academic and public profile, being a lecturer and appearing on television debates. It was this public appearance that seemed to have caught the attention of the right-wing camp.
In 2011, Duma was appointed Deputy Minister of European Integration in Sali Berisha’s government. The appointment came after she had publicly appeared as a supporter of Lulzim Basha and had participated in the activities of the “Initiative for Tirana” group.
It was a quick climb.
From academia and television debates, to government offices.
From there, to the leadership structures of the Democratic Party.
After 2013, when the DP went into opposition, Duma took on another role. In 2014, she became the DP’s Public Relations Secretary, becoming one of the opposition’s most exposed figures in political communication.
It was a period when Lulzim Basha was trying to build a new image of the opposition and Duma emerged as one of the most articulate voices of this change.
Durrës, the first major electoral test
In 2015, the biggest test up to that point came.
The Democratic Party nominated Grida Duma for the Municipality of Durrës.
Initially, her name was also discussed for Tirana, but the race ended in her hometown. The candidacy was formalized by Lulzim Basha and Duma was placed opposite the socialist mayor Vangjush Dako.
She ran an intensive campaign, focusing on employment, development, and changing the city’s administration.
But Durrës was not conquered.
Vangjush Dako held the mayorship.
However, Duma’s result was politically significant. In the 2015 elections, she received 42,284 votes in the Municipality of Durrës, a result that two years later would be used as a point of comparison for the DP’s performance in the parliamentary elections.
The defeat did not remove Duma from the scene.
On the contrary.
She gradually became one of the most important figures in the DP’s communications.
Berisha, Basha and the battle within the DP
Duma’s journey is linked to two figures who have dominated the history of the DP in the last decade: Sali Berisha and Lulzim Basha.
She entered Berisha’s government, but then positioned herself firmly on Basha’s side.
In the years of conflict between the two democratic camps, this position became increasingly clear.
When Berisha launched his “Speech” in 2021, Duma was among the figures who opposed his return to the leadership of the DP. She harshly criticized Berisha’s move and considered him a force that risked deepening the division within the Democratic Party.
This position would have consequences for her relationship with the Berisha faction of the DP.
But even within Basha’s camp, the Duma would face another problem: the long-running opposition crisis.
After the elections of April 25, 2021, she became the deputy leader of the Democratic Party. But internal conflicts, electoral losses, and the deep crisis that followed the Berisha-Basha clash also faced the Duma with a choice.
In 2022, she resigned from the leadership of the DP and then handed over her mandate as an MP.
The departure from politics that was not a departure from politics
In November 2022, Grida Duma publicly announced that she was leaving active politics.
She presented the decision as the result of long reflection and disappointment with the way Albanian politics was developing.
In her statement about leaving, Duma also spoke about what she called “scum politics” and the impact that political clashes had had on her family.
But leaving politics did not mean leaving the public stage.
On the contrary.
Just a few days later she appeared in a new role: moderator of “Top Story”.
On November 14, 2022, Grida Duma took over as the host of one of the most popular political shows in the country. She presented this chapter as a different way of doing politics and public debate.
Thus began her transformation from politician to interviewer.
But, one way or another, politics always remained there.
From the pulpit against Rama to the studio opposite Rama
The greatest irony of Duma’s history is its relationship with Edi Rama.
In the Assembly, she was one of the prime minister’s fiercest opponents.
One of the strongest moments occurred on July 21, 2022.
In a parliamentary session, after Rama’s reply to the opposition, Duma responded from the podium with one of the most sensational statements of her parliamentary career.
She told Rama that “whoever has a digestive system in their brain” can also use their mouth to “defecate,” adding that the prime minister did this often.
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A few weeks later, Duma himself commented on that clash, saying that he felt good about responding to Rama in that way and accusing the prime minister of having lost his “prime minister’s robe.”
A short time later, the scene changed.
Rama was no longer the prime minister she was attacking from the podium.
He became her guest.
This was one of the most interesting turns in Grida Duma’s career.
An interviewer who did not miss politics
On television, Duma did not give up on political analysis.
On the contrary, she shifted her position from a direct actor in the political battle to a figure who could interview both sides.
This gave him a new profile.
In recent years, she has continued to comment on political developments, the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, Edi Rama, and conflicts within the political class.
In May of this year, for example, the Duma declared that the DP was in danger of “declaring its own political death,” criticizing the lack of a genuine competition for the party leadership.
In April, she had placed Edi Rama and Sali Berisha on the same trajectory on the issue of electoral reform, arguing that both were heading towards a similar outcome.
So, even outside of active politics, Duma did not break away from politics.
She just changed the chair.
And now comes the big twist.
This is where the exclusive information from Publik Media comes in.
According to our sources, Edi Rama has selected Grida Duma for the position of Deputy Prime Minister in the next cabinet.
If this information materializes in the prime minister’s final decision-making, it would be one of the most unusual political moves in recent years: a former DP MP, once one of Rama’s most vocal opponents in Parliament, would become a direct part of his government.
If the decision is implemented, this would not simply be a name change in the government.
It would be a political message.
A former deputy minister in the Berisha government.
A former DP candidate for the Municipality of Durrës.
A former MP and vice president of the Democratic Party.
One of the strongest opposition voices against Edi Rama.
A moderator who then had the prime minister face to face in the studio.
And now, according to exclusive sources, a name that Rama is considering placing by his side in the government.
In politics, this would be a move with extraordinary symbolism.
Why Grida Duma?
If the decision is implemented, several elements could explain Rama’s interest.
First, the Duma has a strong public profile.
She is not an anonymous name that needs to be introduced to the public. For years, she has been at the center of Albanian politics and for four years has been one of the well-known figures on political television.
Secondly, she has direct governance experience.
She was Deputy Minister of Integration in the Berisha government and then moved to the opposition, parliament and the political leadership of the Democratic Party.
Third, she knows inside out how the opposition works.
This may be especially important for a government entering a new phase of its fourth term.
And fourth, the Duma has built a public profile that is no longer exclusively associated with one party.
This is precisely the transformation that could make her name attractive to a prime minister seeking to change the government’s image and communication.
Pogradec and the signal for September
The timing of this information is also important.
Edi Rama has held a series of important meetings in Pogradec in recent days.
First, the political leaders of the Socialist Party in the regions and heads of parliamentary committees gathered. Then, it was the turn of ministers and heads of institutions.
The meetings took place in the context of the start of the new political season and the preparation of objectives for the continuation of the fourth mandate.
According to recent reports, the table also included an assessment of the performance of ministries and objectives for the coming months.
But what makes Pogradec particularly interesting is what could come after it.
Media sources have reported that the SP National Assembly may convene in early September and that this mechanism has been used by Rama in the past to announce cabinet changes.
Recent reports have even spoken of question marks over several ministries and the possibility of a cabinet reshuffle.
This means that Pogradec was not just a routine summer meeting.
It was a moment of accountability, testing, and positioning for the new political season.
And it is at this very moment that Grida Duma’s name comes up.
From Berisha to Rama, a turn that would shake up politics.
Grida Duma is thus concluding one of the most unusual Albanian political journeys.
She started it on the right side.
He became part of Sali Berisha’s government.
He switched to Lulzim Basha’s Democratic Party.
He confronted Berisha during the “Speech”.
He ran for Durrës.
She became a member of parliament.
He clashed with Edi Rama in the Parliament.
He publicly accused her of unacceptable language and told her that she used her mouth to “excrete”.
Then he left politics.
It went on television.
Interviewed politicians.
Interviewed Edi Rama.
And now, according to information available to Publik Media, it is Edi Rama who can bring him back to the government.
If this happens, the story will be much bigger than the appointment of a deputy prime minister.
It will be the story of a politician who went from Berisha’s side to the opposition against Rama, from the Parliament podium to the television studio and from confronting the Prime Minister in a chair next to him.
From Rama’s opponent, if confirmed, Grida Duma could become his deputy in the government.
And the final answer may come in the first days of September.
Published by Publik Media