The government Rama made the comments in a preview of a new episode of his “Let’s Talk” (Flasim) podcast, featuring journalist Rudina Xhunga, who is due to ask him 330 questions in a marathon interview.

In excerpts released on social media, Rama also criticised the role of prosecutors and judges in political affairs, saying judicial institutions should not assume powers belonging to elected political institutions.

“A prosecutor, together with another, joined forces and decided to become the prime minister, parliament and president. I cannot accept that,” Rama said.

He also criticised SPAK’s communication with the media.

“One of the worst things SPAK has done is use the media to smear those it was going to charge. This should not happen,” Rama said.

Commenting on the situation in Tirana Municipality, Rama described its current leadership as “a social and economic experiment”, referring to the fact that Mayor Erion Veliaj remains in pre-trial detention.

“The municipality has no head. It is a social and economic experiment to run a capital city without a head,” Rama said.

Rama also rejected claims that Albania was selling off Sazan, an island off the country’s southern coast that has been the subject of a proposed tourism development.

“They are not buying the island, nor are they taking ownership of it. That island will remain the property of the Republic of Albania … I am not the seller of Albania,” Rama said.

The prime minister also reflected on his political career and the relationship between power and individuals, saying: “It was a great political talent that could not bear the weight. Power is a monstrous beast; it has consumed and absorbed many men.”

The full “Flasim Shqip” episode with Xhunga is expected to be released as part of the new season of Rama’s podcast.

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Speaking at an event marking the 35th anniversary of the ruling Socialist Party in southern Albanian city of Vlora, Rama said the island was a national asset and that the state would retain ownership while participating in investment projects.

“Sazan belongs to the Albanian people and the Albanian state. In this development, the Albanian state will be a partner,” he said.

Rama rejected criticism that strategic investments amount to the sale of public assets, saying negotiations over proposed projects had been conducted transparently and did not involve privatisation.

He also dismissed concerns that foreign workers were taking jobs from Albanians, arguing that labour shortages in tourism and hospitality had contributed to rising wages.

“In Vlora’s restaurants today, wages are equal to or higher than those in Greece,” Rama said.

The government head added that Albania’s economic development depended on attracting major investments while safeguarding public ownership of strategic assets.

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Speaking on entrepreneur David Senra’s podcast, Trump discussed plans for the island development being pursued by her husband, Jared Kushner’s investment firm, and outlined a vision centred on integrating architecture with the site’s natural environment.

Trump said she first became interested in the island after visiting the area by boat and described the landscape as exceptional.

She said plans for the project had evolved over several years, with the aim of developing the site while preserving its natural character.

“Any architectural intervention should be undertaken with complete respect for the environment and integrated organically with nature, almost as if it were part of it,” Trump said.

She added that the project team was working with internationally renowned architects and designers on the development.

Following is the full interview of Ivanka Trump to David Senra’s podcast:

Right now in your life today, what is the most exciting part of your work life?

My work life specifically. I think I. Have gotten to a place where I know myself. I know what I love, I know what I’m good at. I know what. Excites me and where I can sustain so excitement over. A long period of time, which is, which is critical because I’ve really lived so many different lives. So now everything I apply myself to, I can do it with a lot of vigor, but also a lot of confidence that this is something I’m passionate about.

So the things I’m doing right now that I really love and and that I spring out of bed each morning to do are super mission driven. So whether it’s incubating companies from for profit to to non for profit businesses. Investing in companies and founders that are really right at the edge of of transformation, whether that be AI, biotech, neurotech, robotics, even space.

Really things that I think satisfy huge curiosity for me and enable me to to learn and grow and expand and founders that are taking on meaningful problems. What inspires me is. Because people really swinging for things like I love individuals with huge imaginations and huge ideas. The ability to learn from them, to spend time with them, to be expanded by them is I think, super interesting.

And then I’ve also gotten back to my real estate routes, which has been a lot of fun. And I’m working on an incredible project with my husband and the Mediterranean. It’s massive in scale.

I think that’s an understatement. Can you explain? It is it is there’s no power on this island. You’re building. You’re building everything from scratch, correct?

It’s an unbelievable, beautiful 1400 hectare private island in the middle of the Mediterranean. We were on a friend’s boat and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that’s how we found it. We swam to the islands, we went on a hike barefoot all the way up to the top and we were just captivated. And it stayed with us ever since and over the course of many years.

He developed the opportunity to help realize its potential and transform it, but with a lot of restraint and care because the land is so beautiful that really the architecture has to be fully integrated into it, almost rise from it.

You know, it’s not even a business for me, despite the scale of it. We not only the island, but we have 5 miles of beachfront directly across from the island, this beautiful peninsula with a lagoon on one side, the ocean on the other, beautiful white sand beaches.

For me this is it feels more like a challenge than anything else, the culmination of all of my experience in real estate, all of my travel, a lot of reflection on how I want to live, how I think people increasingly are wanting to live and trying to.

Really build something that’s a tangible manifestation of that that requires a lot of vision, the collaboration of some of the greatest masters that exist.

So I was just, I was just there walking the lands, really just trying to sort of be with it and experience it alongside some of the greatest living architects of our time, like true masters of their craft, people with integrity so absolute. Like there will be no compromise.

That’s something we want to create there, so we’re very excited.

What does that mean? People with integrity so complete, there’s no compromise in their vision. Is that what you mean?

When you work with real artists, regardless of their medium, whether it’s a canvas or real estate, home music. They don’t compromise. Their integrity is precise and absolute, and they’ll push themselves. They’ll push everyone around them.

You guys hearing this? There’s like 6 people off camera that I badger every day, drive absolutely crazy…

But actually that’s where you get to something, you know, and, and part of it there is a push and pull when you’re working with an architect, you know, unless they’re building a monument, right? It’s they’re building a space that people have to interact with, not just observe like a canvas.

They have to live in it, they have to get married in it. If it’s a hotel, it’s their home. So there’s certain functional elements like there’s nothing uglier than a beautiful nonfunctional. Space like that’s to me that’s not a masterpiece because it wasn’t fully thought through

When you can combine something that is architecturally incredibly meaningful and beautiful and intentional with. A highly functional space.

And one of the things I love about real estate is it’s well, first, it’s tangible in a world where increasingly everything is not you see the result of years of work and really to bring a project to life, it’s years, sometimes a decade plus.

It’s also must feel good because many of the buildings that you’ve been involved in this new project, you know it’s going to outlive you like to build something that you know. Last longer than your own lifetime.

One of the things that I love so much and I’ve worked on a lot of. Incredible projects. The old post office in Washington, DC was was my baby. We acquired this incredible building built in the 1890s and lovingly restored it and made it useful in its modern life. It was effectively a dilapidated post office and now as a thriving urban hotel. So that was an amazing project that took a very long period of time to bring to life. And just one example.

But I think the thing I love the most, not only seeing it because that’s great and experiencing it and remember every decision you took through the design and development process.

But also that people will stop me and tell me the story of a child’s christening in one of the ballrooms, their daughter’s wedding. They some experience they had that was. A milestone life moment that somebody chose to have that happen in a space that I conceived alongside many other talented people.

So that to me is something really beautiful. That’s something very, very unique and special about being a builder. You’re building the stage for people’s lives and and the realization of of their dreams. So and that’s what we’re going to do with this Sazan project.

How do you how do I say it?

Sazan.

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Speaking in a television talk show, the government head said the island, off Albania’s southern coast, was “the property of the state and the Albanian people and has never been sold and never will be.”

“The Albanian government will be a partner with the company or group that invests there, and partnership negotiations are still ongoing,” he added.

Rama dismissed speculation that the project was linked to Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of the U.S. President Donald Trump after his election to the White House.

“That is not true. It is regrettable how the international media has described this process since the very beginning. When I first met Jared and when we started working on this, nobody knew whether Donald Trump would go to the White House or to prison. This has nothing to do with politics. For me they have been, and remain, American investors – just like any other Americans,” Rama said.

Asked whether he would press ahead with the project if U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris were to win the presidential election, Rama said the issue had never been political.

“Albania is not a place where conflicts or problems from the United States can be transferred. Every American who comes here is a friend, and every investor is welcome. Everything has been done respecting the law and procedures,” he said.

The Premier announced that a full masterplan for Sazan’s redevelopment would be ready within months.

“Work is under way to turn Sazan into a dream destination. This will set a new standard for hospitality infrastructure not only in Albania but across the Mediterranean,” he said, citing cooperation with architects, environmental engineers and landscape designers.

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