Over the last few weeks, Prime Minister Edi Rama has been busy repositioning government officials he fired in an attempt to appease student protestors in December.
The latest attempt to recycle a discredited official is Rama’s endorsement of Ervin Demo for Mayor of Berat.
Demo resigned in November 2018 as Deputy Minister of Education after medical researcher Taulant Muka published proof that he had plagiarized scientific work of other researchers. Muka succeeded him as Deputy Minister, but resigned two weeks later because of the working conditions.
Meanwhile, Elsevier, which published Demo’s article in one of its journals, promised to investigate the plagiarism and withdraw the article.
Last week, Demo appeared at an event of the Socialist Party in Berat, and was promoted by Rama as mayoral candidate for Berat during the upcoming local elections.
Muka denounced the promotion of Demo on Facebook, after which he received a phone call from Rama himself:
“His telephone call came after I my denunciation of his meeting yesterday in Berat where he nominated plagiarist and unqualified Demo as mayor! During the meeting my name was mentioned because of defamation for plagiarism and that Demo would win the non-existent (but propagandistic) lawsuit against me. […]”
