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"If municipalities are merged, the territory will be emptied" - Two absurd arguments for opposing territorial reform

2026-08-23 09:32:03Pikëpamje SHKRUAR NGA YLLI MANJANI
"If municipalities are merged, the territory will be emptied" - Two
Ylli Manjani - Photo montage by Vox News

There are two arguments being heard these days against territorial reform. Two arguments so weak that it makes you wonder if they are serious or satire. Unfortunately, they are not satire. They are public arguments by people who are defending the existence of several municipalities that have been living on financial life support for years.

The first is this: "If municipalities are merged, the territory will be emptied."

I read it in more than one place and, honestly, I thought it was some fake news. In the age of fake news, one is forced to verify even stupidity, to make sure they haven't misunderstood. But no. It's an argument that is being used seriously.

So, according to this logic, the reason why people live in these municipalities is not the economy, jobs, infrastructure, investments or quality of life. No. People have chosen to stay there because there is a municipal council with a few councilors and some modest salaries.

Oh God… help me find some logic to digest this.

If this theory were true, then these municipalities would be the most populated places in Albania today. Because municipal councils have existed for years. Meanwhile, the reality is brutal. People have left. They have left despite the mayors, councilors, council meetings and their “historic” decisions. They have left because they found no reason to live there.

Maybe some local councilors have their own problems. Maybe they're talking about removing themselves from those municipalities once they're off the public payroll. I understand that to some extent. But presenting this as the problems of the residents is another level of absurdity.

Territorial reform is not done to keep municipal councilors in work. It is done, or should be done, to serve citizens. If an elected municipality does not have financial capacity, does not produce development and survives only on state budget transfers, the problem is not the reform. The problem is the model itself, which has failed.

A serious municipal council should not tell us: “Don't dissolve us because people will leave.” It should convince us with projects, with the economy, with tourism, with agriculture, with industry, with investments. It should show us why that municipality deserves to exist as a development unit, not as a pension office that distributes state funds. If people leave that municipality, there is no point in keeping the council and the mayor as elected units. Who elects them if people leave because they have nothing else to do?!

We must say bluntly that all this fuss is not about the territory. Nor about the people who have fled and want to flee those areas. But about a few chairs and a few salaries.

Second argument: according to the DP, Albania is better off with 100 municipalities.

The DP says that dividing the remaining Albanians into about 100 municipalities would be better for the country. But this is a political slogan, not a development argument.

Albania is a small country, with a declining population and massive emigration. There is no economic logic for development to come from administrative fragmentation. Fragmentation can make a service closer to the citizen. Okay. But the main question remains with what money will it provide that service?

What is the point of 100 mayors and councils elected locally by a minimum number of residents and funded by the central budget?!

A municipality does not develop just because a new border is drawn on a map. It develops when it has an economic base, income, investment and a functional administration. Borders do not produce money. On the contrary, fragmentation is very costly.

Politically, this argument is also contrary to the DP's own interests. The more small municipalities, the more local government centers are created, and, historically, this has favored the government more than the opposition.

Then the question arises, do they ever want to gain power, or are they simply propagandizing against every reform because the government proposes it?

This is an opposition to anger, not vision.

The reform missing from the debate

The biggest paradox is that the debate is focused on municipalities, while almost no one talks about the regions.

If there is a territorial reform that needs serious discussion. It is precisely the regions, their competencies, their number, their function and the relationship with local government. There is substantial debate there. There is room for models of development and territorial organization.

While the debate "don't take away our municipality because people are leaving" is an insult to the public's intelligence.

Territorial reform can be opposed. It should even be opposed because for me there are really serious problems that require discussion and attention.

There is certainly room to counter it with serious arguments, with financial, demographic, economic and administrative analyses. Not with tales that people live there only to vote for the municipal council, and not with the idea that Albania will develop by being fragmented into more and more pieces of administrative nonsense.

We must keep the debate where it belongs, on the development of the territory and the well-being of Albanians in it, and not on the survival of a few political jobs.

Meanwhile, be careful: Ilirjan Celibashi is right when he says that there is no more time for territorial and administrative reform, if we want local elections to be held...


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