After today’s meeting of the Council of Ministers, Prime Minister Rama communicated with the media regarding the latest developments on the Zvërnec issue.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Good afternoon! I believe you heard the Government’s decisions today. I have come out for another reason that has nothing to do with the government meeting, but has to do with a development that I consider very positive regarding the process of verifying the transaction for the purchase of the land in Zvërnec, which means the full and final clarification of the origin of the funds transferred through the bank and the final release of the investors who are now also owners.

Meanwhile, on the other hand, I also consider it very positive that SPAC has decided to keep the funds frozen, without allowing them to pass to the seller, for whom there is an investigative process. From my point of view, this is very positive also for anyone who claims property in that territory, because now the issue of the origin of the property is an issue that will be covered by a completely independent and professional investigation through SPAC, and in both cases the result will be an unquestionable result from the legal point of view, while from the point of view of claims, it will put an end to every speculation, every manipulation, every claim that is not based on law.

If the seller has a legitimate origin of the property, he will receive the money. If he does not, naturally the money will remain with the Republic of Albania, and certainly it will be used for anyone who proves that his claim over the property is grounded.

So here every kind of concern of those who are sincere claimants of the property comes to an end, and anyone else who appears as a claimant with “Albania belongs to Albanians” in his mouth and with the winding up of other hands from behind may continue to appear, but it is no longer our problem. If there are questions, I am at your disposal.

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Mr Rama, one day ago you called on the protesters to sit down for dialogue and to talk, but they continued to protest on the third day in front of your office and declared that without resignation there is no dialogue. Do you have a counter response for them, who have announced again today at 18:00 another protest?

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Whose resignation?

Yours!

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Yes, I have an answer. They should refer to the long archive of this old film, because by now there is nothing new here. I have asked to talk with those who voted for me, some of them, and who have written to me since the first protest. I have respect for them and with them I am ready to talk at any time, because they have not gone out to protest to develop a new episode of a very old film.

So that film should show everyone that nothing moves me from the position, in quotation marks, where the Albanians have placed me, and whoever speaks in the name of Albanians should not forget that I represent and embody the will of at least over 800 thousand Albanians and I have a contract with them.

Whoever then speaks in the name of true feelings about what may happen to the environment, about how the environment can be protected or how it can be endangered, is welcome to talk with me and with us.

Mr Prime Minister, we had the opportunity to become familiar with your position after the protest at the Socialist Party headquarters. You also mentioned now “Golden Dawn”. How engaged have Albanian law enforcement institutions been in proving whether there has been interference from foreign states or countries not well disposed towards Albania?

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Whoever has not understood this yet will not understand it even with the word of law enforcement agencies, but you know, at least it is known worldwide, because for this we are respected also within NATO. We have one of the strongest protections against cyber terror, which means we have a very complete mirror of where they come from and where they go, but naturally this is not a territory of cyber terror, this is a territory of hybrid war that is being developed, about which we have heard from other countries and which has also come here to our country.

There are countless sources of the democratic world that have issued reports and studies on how forces against the European Union, forces against the development of countries that they do not want strong, organise and incite and orchestrate situations of this nature, using first of all environmental issues, because in environmental issues there is very great sensitivity and in environmental issues precisely that thing happens, that the brothers of “Golden Dawn”, who are orchestrated by “masters” like those of “Golden Dawn”, in the name of Albania belonging to Albanians, join with Albanians, girls, boys, young women and young men, with a patriotic approach towards nature, who feel hurt.

Precisely this is what these forces that do such things know. This is a hybrid war, but there is no doubt at all that this war will end and that everyone will receive what belongs to them, and above all that Albania and Albanians will receive the revenues that belong to them in order to grow the economy, to grow Albania in all aspects, but naturally also in the main aspect, which is the economy, because ignorance is never an argument.

And I, being that I fear my own ignorance very much, because I have to speak about many fields due to my duty, which I cannot possibly know by themselves and nor can I go after Berihaj, read a lot, learn a lot, because I bear responsibility for what I say and, on the other hand, I have to face, we have to face, people who say, “but why do we need luxury resorts, because they are not for us”.

In fact, the opposite is true. Luxury resorts are those that bring the highest revenues to the economy from tourism, and these are figures. For these, there is no need to listen to me, indeed now that young people also have “ChatGPT” or other artificial intelligence platforms, they can ask them and say: “I am an Albanian who does not have income from my family and my family does not have the income to go to a luxury resort, why should I accept the construction of the luxury resort?” And they will receive the answer that the luxury resort produces income for them, because it is something studied and based on facts, underlined by the most serious international organizations, that 1 euro entering a luxury resort is accompanied by 1.6 to 2 euros entering the local economy of that country.

Because the luxury resort is not built on the moon. It is built in a reality around which there are people and it is a reality where people come, who consume the products around it, who use the services around it and who contribute to the country’s economy, because the growth of the entire economic chain also brings the growth of revenues for the state. And from those revenues the state pays salaries and pensions, and there is no need to be a scientist, nor to study environmental engineering or to study macroeconomics. It is enough to look at Montenegro.

And the question is very simple. Montenegro does not produce rockets. Montenegro does not produce cars. Montenegro does not have any sector as successful in digital technology as other countries. What does Montenegro produce? What is Montenegro’s biggest economic engine? Tourism! Then how is it explained that in Montenegro salaries have for some time been the highest in the region, with a large difference? We have now begun to approach Montenegro, because we had been miserable in relation to Montenegro. How is it explained that pensions in Montenegro are at another level? The answer is very simple: luxury resorts. It is that simple. So, I have no dilemma about this, and I have no reason to think that, with my awareness, Albania should get rid of this project.

I had two questions, Mr. Prime Minister. The first, you said that you are a prime minister voted by Albanians, certainly. But I believe that the citizens protesting on the boulevard behind us are also Albanian citizens. As prime minister, I believe that for a good part of the citizens you have the obligation to tell them who is pushing these citizens to protest, since you say that there are dark forces or other people behind them who are pushing them. And the second question, apart from the demand for resignation and the call for resignation that there is from the protesters, the word “prison” has also been articulated. If you were in the conditions between prison and resignation, would you resign to avoid the latter?

Prime Minister Edi Rama: I will not answer, because if I answer, I will be considered a person who does not respect the media. So, I have no answer to this question, because this question is not a question at all. This question lacks every kind of ethic.

As for what belongs to me, I know very well that those who come and protest are Albanians, and I did not answer against the Albanians who come and protest. I answered those who say: “we want unconditional resignation”, by saying that I have no invitation at all for them. They are not the ones I have invited, because I know who they are. I know how they function and they are part of the manipulators.

Meanwhile, I have it with those who are part of that crowd or that group on the boulevard who have no connection with the first ones, who do not go out on the boulevard to demand my resignation. As regards prison, this is a topic that deserves only one comment from my side. The time when prison was shown to people in the streets is a time that we have left very far behind, and I am the person who, with pride, has led the greatest historic battle of Albanians and of Albania, for Albanians and for all others equally, by opening the way to the Justice Reform, by giving life to a structure that is entirely independent from me and that does its work in the service of justice.

So, these are separate things, and this is again part of speculations and manipulations, but I have seen many of these and these do not impress me at all.

Thank you!