Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama in the distribution ceremony of a thousand legalization permits in Shkoder:

 

1.528 legalizations have been made only in the municipality of Rrethina since ALUIZINI started to function properly in a little more than two years ago. Just to make a simple comparison: those who used to tell people not to vote for Edi Rama because he will destroy your homes and send you back from where you have come, made only 21 thousand legalizations in 8 years, and 80% of those legalizations was for hotels, motels, swimming pools, springboards, warehouses, and the rest was for homes. In two and a half years, after we looked for, found and arranged the files left adrift, we made 115 thousand legalizations which, added to one thousand legalizations made here today, total 116 thousand legalizations.

The facts and the reality of the families who waited for many years speak for themselves, and finally 116 thousand families have today their titles. Finally, their investment, their savings and their hard work have been transformed into registered capital which they can use as they wish. They can sell it, they can put it as a bank collateral, they can rent it, etc. Nobody can destroy it, otherwise they will have to compensate them as regular owners.

Legalizations are an important part of our battle to recover the economy of the households, to give people new opportunities, and to transform their huge investment, the money they have invested in bricks, mortar and tiles, in a capital which they can use based on their needs, as they are now possessor of a legal title of ownership.

Of course, we are not done with legalizations, as they could not be done in such a short time compared to the many and many years during which people have built, and compared to what was done in more than 20 years. You and all those who own today a legalized home are the best witnesses of the truth that this is a process that only we could do and only we can conclude for everybody.

The other side of the coin, not less important, is the fact that those who are receiving legalizations today, can witness how they paid even under the table in the past years and received nothing in return. Whereas you are witnesses that you are receiving these legalizations today because the young men and women who work at ALUIZNI of Shkoder came to your homes, helped you fill in the papers properly, so that you didn’t need to go to ALUIZNI and wait there days and nights. This process made with the assistance of ALUIZNI, and for which you didn’t pay any penny, is for free in terms of the whole administrative procedure.

Everything is for free for those who are land owners. Those who are not will pay a contribution for the land in order to make sure that none of the grandchildren of the owner will come tomorrow to their door and tell them “the government gave you the house, but the land is ours”. In addition, thanks to these contributions we can do more also for the neighbourhood. It doesn’t end with the legalization, it doesn’t end with the registration of the property, but it must continue also with the improvement of the situation in the neighbourhood.

Yesterday, I had a long conversation with Artan Lame in order to have a report on Shkoder, and I noticed that the Municipality of Shkoder is an example in terms of drowsiness and indifference towards citizens and families. I am very sorry that what was made to Tirana until 2015 is now being made to Shkoder. I am very sorry that drowsiness has been transferred from Tirana to Shkoder. They say, “It doesn’t matter if they’re mad at us. They’ll vote for us eventually”.

You know who and how to vote. I’m not here to campaign. But one thing is for sure. Elections will take place on June 18. And there’s still time until June 18. Think about it with a cool head, whether you want to leave the houses of which you just became owners, and join the tent, or you want to continue together with us the path we have just embarked.

This is a free country. Who wants to work in the tent works in the tent. Who wants to work the land works the land. Who wants to work in another front of the life will work in another front of the life. Just as, we have made up our minds, I have made up my mind that as long as you and those who are not here think that I and we must serve you, there is no force that can change this will.