“We are Europeans and as such we wish to join the EU,” Prime Minister Edi Rama stated in an interview with Susanne Koelbl and Walter Mayr of the leading German newspaper Der Spiegel.
In an interview with Der Spiegel, Prime Minister Rama commented on the recent Iran’s cyber-attack on Albania and expressed the country’s strong desire for EU membership and made his case for German retired people “to see Albania as a haven on earth.”
DER SPIEGEL: Mr. Prime Minister, Albania severed diplomatic ties with Iran a few days ago. The diplomats had only 24 hours to leave the country. What lies behind this?
PM Edi Rama: Iran attacked our country by waging a massive cyber-attack. The goal was to disrupt and destroy all the digital government services in which we put blood, sweat and tears over so many years to be up and running. Thanks to our IT specialists, the Microsoft and the US government experts, we were able to contain the damage.
DER SPIEGEL: The background of the attack is, apparently, the presence of several thousand members of the Iranian opposition, who are actively working to overthrow of the regime in Iran and cooperating with the US, the so-called People’s Mujahedeen (MEK). In 2013, your country accepted the MEK from Iraq at a request from Washington. Would you prefer to distance yourselves from this group today?
PM Edi Rama: No, Albania lives by a proud tradition of offering shelter to people in peril. And our strategic alliance with the US cannot simply mean that we always have the Washington support. Sometimes we have to help the US too. Albanians owe a lot to the Americans.
DER SPIEGEL: The war in Ukraine has changed the world and is now threatening the fragile peace in the Western Balkans. How deep is this division?
PM Edi Rama: Very deep. More than 80 percent of Serbs think positively of how Putin is currently opposing the West, but his popularity in Albania is less than one percent. This is the finding of a survey conducted by our government, shortly after the war broke out. Moscow’s influence in Serbia is strong, and in the Serbian part of Bosnia-Herzegovina it is way too stronger. Russia has a lot of influence on the Serbs. We must be aware that this influence can turn into something terrible.
DER SPIEGEL: What should we be prepared for?
PM Edi Rama: Putin would be more than happy if a conflict was to erupt in somewhere in the Balkans. The Kremlin’s chief provokes wherever he can. Putin constantly refers to Kosovo in his speeches, the most painful of the pending issues in the Balkans. We must prevent something bad from happening at all costs.
DER SPIEGEL: What do you suggest?
PM Edi Rama: You can’t ask much from Belgrade right now. Everything can be turned upside down. Serbia, for example, cannot impose sanctions on Russia.
DER SPIEGEL: Putin likes to take advantage of Kosovo history as an excuse for the occupation of Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk. Does he refer to the facts that NATO bombed Belgrade and invaded Kosovo without a UN mandate?
PM Edi Rama: The only reason that the NATO hadn’t an UN mandate was that Russia and China objected it. The Crimea annexation is an imperialist-based model, like the attack on Ukraine, a sovereign and democratic country. The air campaign on Belgrade and the liberation of Kosovo at that time, on the other hand, saved the population from ethnic cleansing. And the International Court of Justice finally confirmed Kosovo’s independence as an act of international law.
DER SPIEGEL: Has anything really changed in the Western Balkans over the last 20 years?
PM Edi Rama: The Balkans have always been a tense region, it is fragile. But I pretend that the situation is better today than ever before.
DER SPIEGEL: How can one determine this?
PM Edi Rama: Despite the differences, the prime ministers of the Western Balkan six countries have agreed since a meeting in Berlin in 2014 that we must turn the tide of history together. It takes small steps to build a larger relationship, just as the Germans and French slowly moved toward complete peace after World War II.
DER SPIEGEL: Does this also apply to your relationship with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic?
PM Edi Rama: Absolutely. The history of Albanians and Serbs is a history of pain and blood. But when I was elected to office, I decided to visit Belgrade. My visit in 2014 was the first of an Albanian PM to Serbia after 68 years. And then Vucic came to Tirana. This shows we have come a long way.
DER SPIEGEL: Is there any hope for an agreement on the Kosovo issue?
PM Edi Rama: Regarding Kosovo, we agreed that we would disagree. I think that Serbia should recognize Kosovo. But Aleksandar Vucic cannot do that. But, at least we can talk about this topic. And we cooperate in projects like the Open Balkan.
DER SPIEGEL: A mini-Schengen like project between North Macedonia, Albania and Serbia?
PM Edi Rama: Yes, where all other Balkan countries have been invited to join. Vucic has thus accepted the border between Albania and Kosovo and this is a big step forward and a really significant political accomplishment.
DER SPIEGEL: Kosovo is the only country refusing to participate. Why Prime Minister Albin Kurti opposes the Balkan project?
PM Edi Rama: Kurti says that the Serbs should first apologize for what they have done to the Albanians. And I agree, yes, Serbia should apologize. The only question is when? I think that the apology will come once the dialogue works. Willy Brandt kneeled down to his knees in 1946. He only knelt in Warsaw in 1970. Our political life can be polarized today, we often can’t even agree on the weather conditions here. But when it comes to membership in the European Union, there is absolute consensus.
DER SPIEGEL: Can the trauma of the Yugoslav wars be healed?
PM Edi Rama: Small steps are needed to build a larger relationship, just as the Germans and French slowly moved toward peace after World War II. Open Balkan is a platform for that and I think my brother Albin Kurti should face the Serbs there. But he let the opportunity fly out of the window, which is regrettable.
DER SPIEGEL: Albania and Serbia are both seeking to join the European Union. However, Belgrade continues to buy gas and weapons from Russia. Can such a balancing act succeed in the long run?
PM Edi Rama: Serbia pursues the non-aligned tradition of communist Yugoslavia’s foreign policy. It wants to be welcomed all over the world, in Washington and in Brussels, in Beijing and in Moscow. When it comes to Russian gas, I have to say the Serbs are in good company!
DER SPIEGEL: Where did the unity come from?
PM Edi Rama: Our entire history has been shaped by regimes and empires that we did not choose, by the Ottomans, communists, kingdoms, totalitarian systems. We have always been obliged. The EU means a free choice for the first time.
DER SPIEGEL: So, why is Albania still not making any significant progress with reforms, 30 years after the end of the dictatorship, in terms of governance, the fight against corruption and the justice system reform?
PM Edi Rama: We have to do a lot of things here that we have never had. Albanians have never had a judiciary independent from politics. We have never had a state on a solid footing. After all, we were an isolated dictatorship, the North Korea of Europe, where it was still dangerous to listen to ‘The Beatles’ in the late 1980s. So I think that in absolute terms we have achieved more in these 30 years than any other country in Europe.
DER SPIEGEL: One cannot say that you lack confidence in any case?
PM Edi Rama: Just imagine how Albania used to be around the end of the communist dictatorship, with every household entitled to buy four kilos of meat per month only. People had to wake up at one o’clock after midnight to line up for a bottle of milk. But take a look at the large number of Albanians vacationing abroad nowadays or the cars the drive on the roads.
DER SPIEGEL: We see many brand new cares, including a large number of black Mercedes Benz cars. However, five percent of the Albanians still face lack of enough food. After all, this sounds really a huge inequality.
PM Edi Rama: Nobody is starving here, although poverty exists. We have succeeded in putting the economy on track to date. Most of the transactions are still carried out in cash. Immigrants send remittances from all over the world and legalizing this money is a challenge for us, even if it is not generated from criminal activity.
DER SPIEGEL: Meanwhile, people are leaving the country en masse, heading to Germany in particular. Can’t you convince your citizens to build the Albanian economy here?
PM Edi Rama: How am I supposed as the head of the government of a developing country to stop them from leaving the country, whereas a more developed EU member state doesn’t? Around 50 000 Portuguese leave their country each year, 500 000 Croatians have left their homeland since the country joined the EU.
DER SPIEGEL: People are also leaving because the state has offered them nothing. One has to pay a bribe even when visiting a doctor. Can’t you eliminate it?
PM Edi Rama: Our administration is now fully digitized to make corruption impossible. Please record such progress as well! It is hard to break an entrenched, long-established system. Let’s consider fastening the seatbelt. An Albanian driver fastens the seatbelt as soon as he gets on his car when driving in Germany. Why does he so? Because there is a law nobody violates.
DER SPIEGEL: In a country with a population of only 2.8 million, this war should be won with little willpower, shouldn’t you?
PM Edi Rama: Small countries are not less complicated than the big ones. After all, we are all related to one another here. Relatives have to make a ruling about their relatives. It is difficult to do so in a country where everything is considered so personal.
DER SPIEGEL: Albanian politics over the last three decades has always been dominated by same names since the beginning of the 1990s: your predecessor Sali Berisha, former president Ilir Meta and Edi Rama. You have been in power for a long time.
PM Edi Rama: I have not been in state politics as long as the other two, but a whole new generation is in parliament now and female-dominated cabinet. This is actually quite progressive.
DER SPIEGEL: You often say that women are the best. What makes you think that way?
PM Edi Rama: I am really convinced about it. If you ask a man to devise a certain project, he vows to do so, but nothing happens indeed. It is quite different when it comes to a woman. She first hesitates, but she succeeds when embarking on delivering on that project.
DER SPIEGEL: Unlike women, your relationship with the media is seen as quite strained. You like to insult journalists as “trash bins” and “charlatans”. How much appropriate is this approach in an open democracy?
PM Edi Rama: I think forgiveness will come once the dialogue starts working.
DER SPIEGEL: Albania has been waiting for its EU accession talks to open for eight years now, whereas North Macedonia has been waiting for 17 years. The accession negotiations finally were launched in July. How long your patience will last?
PM Edi Rama: Our patience is endless when it comes to the EU accession. We want to be there. We are Europeans. Our political life can be polarized today, but when it comes to membership in the European Union, there is absolute consensus.
DER SPIEGEL: What exactly are you talking about?
PM Edi Rama: The newspaper Guardian recently posted a story on construction of the high-rise buildings in Tirana’s centres, claiming that the construction project was allegedly a money laundering activity as these buildings will remain unoccupied. This is totally wrong.
DER SPIEGEL: Isn’t it correct that the old national theatre building in the centre of Tirana was demolished in an operation to pave way to construction of these new buildings? And, couldn’t it be said that the demolition and construction procedures were not very transparent?
PM Edi Rama: No! A new theatre is being built on the site of the old theatre building. And it is about just six high-rise buildings. The future owners of these buildings are all leading and renowned businessmen. They are some of the biggest taxpayers in Albania. Purchases and sales transactions are processed via banks. Some now claim it is proceeds from the drug trafficking. The truth is that these people have received bank loans to finance their property purchase, all sales transactions are verifiable. Our statement probably does not fit into the trend of the newspaper story.
DER SPIEGEL: You have secured the support of the Emir of Abu Dhabi as an intermediary for Arab investors for the construction of the port in the coastal city of Durrës. What do you expect from this?
PM Edi Rama: This amazing project will take Albanian tourism to the highest world ranking. The city’s old port will be transformed into tourist port. It was for many years that we were looking for an investor willing to invest two billion euros, but we couldn’t find one. Mohammed bin Zayed supports the project generously and he has found sponsors.
DER SPIEGEL: Albania ranks 110th by Transparency International. Can you give us three reasons why entrepreneurs should still invest here?
PM Edi Rama: Albania is one of the world’s safest countries. The country’s crime rate is lower than that of the UK, Greece or Italy and of course the US, with one of the lowest homicide rates in Europe. The tourism industry needs investments, because the landscape and the coasts are breathtaking. And German retirees should come here to spend their retirement by the sea. An old Albanian saying has it that “an Albanian’s house is the dwelling of God and the guest.”
