Good evening!
Dear friends, brothers and sisters,
This is my final exclusive communication on the common fight we have so far waged to defeat what has been world-wide branded as the invisible enemy, the Covid-19 virus. But, please listen carefully, the virus is neither gone, nor has been ultimately defeated! The number of fresh infections in Tirana over the past few days is not a good thing.
The political shows gathering crowds on the country’s roads without using any protective equipment, but, quite the contrary, demonstrating disregard and negligence, which, at best, is an indicator of complete irresponsibility, and, at worst, an indicator short-sightedness and narrow-mindedness, continue even after the wake on the third day of the ramshackle building of the National Theatre. This all just to collect self-disgracing signatures on behalf of pseudo-stage actors, who are merely puppets, serving a new movement, political party, just to stage a dog and pony show of the supposed woes and plight of businesses that allegedly haven’t received a single penny from the government, but they are actually playing with the fire and the population’s health.
Be careful! Just be careful, because nothing bad will happen because of my concern and utmost care about you all, even if somehow exaggerated, as we will recover from the effects of what we have been through to date and you will completely forget the irritation and some few restrictive measures still in place here and there, because one cannot play with you and your family’s health and lives and one cannot keep playing about who is to be blamed for the restrictive measures … Let me blamed about that, it is not a problem at all. You are free to throw insults and burst furious with rage against me, but don’t scoff at the infection risk and don’t neglect it, because it is read and it can turn deadly!
I pray to God every day and wholeheartedly wish that we will not ever be disgraced after we have successfully coped with the worst, and that we won’t be forced– God forbid it – to reinstate lockdown measures again just because of the indifference or frivolity of those who by refusing to acknowledge the existence of danger, can let themselves loose amid the gradual and phased easing of the restrictions. I am very concerned and I repeat, the phase we are already in is actually a very delicate one, because people could forget the fact that the virus is neither gone, nor ultimately defeated.
However, I would thank and express deepest gratitude for the responsible behaviour as civilized people in full respect and understanding of the extreme measures that were taken. Together we have saved our face in this war, which things could have gone wrong, should the government were to fail to live up by its commitment and the Albanian people were not to live up by this global challenge of nerves.
The voice of those who have eyes, but do not want to see, who have ears, but do not want to hear, who have brain, but do not wish to think were not absent. But, fortunately, not only they were a small minority of people, but, at the same time, despite the countless nonsense and abusive talk, insults, curses, they didn’t become problematic rule breakers, except few sporadic cases. This is the last week when the travel restrictions will remain in place.
Likewise, except the cultural and sports events, where the spectators will continue to be missing, the wedding parties and funerals, where people won’t be allowed to gather in hundreds; the public transport that will remain halted for some more time and the beaches, where a set of safety rules and guidance is needed to be drafted first, everything else will reopen just like before.
Meanwhile, the individual behaviour of each of us – I repeat and I will keep repeating it – should not be the same again, because, if so, a new wave of infection, perhaps even more aggressive than the first one, will be inevitable! It is something else if, as they say, the new wave is likely to come back in winter and it won’t be the result of our irresponsibility. We can’t prevent it, but we will certainly cope with it! On our part, the government is preparing and working to make the country’s health system more resilient and ensure it can successfully cope with a potential fresh wave. The new hospital centre adjacent to the Tirana-Durres highway has been reconstructed to meet standards in terms of treatment and intensive care and it is already being supplied with the necessary logistics.
Our doctors, nurses and health workers made us proud, demonstrating not only heroism, but also proving themselves truly fantastic professionals and, I apologize, but I am really glad that this was the case when they delivered a overwhelming response to all violators who for 30 years have made their lives a misery by unleashing a tirade of insults, accusations, slanders and even physical attacks while on duty at hospitals, where they have saved hundreds and thousands of lives over the past three tough decades.
Don’t forget that it was thanks to them that Albania and the name “Albanian” earned a new citizenship in the neighbouring Italy, while hundreds and thousands of our compatriots, living, working and studying in the friendly nation, felt like never before proud of their motherland in the eyes of their Italian neighbours and they will no longer be prejudiced by anyone because of the name “Albanian.”
Endless gratitude and this is absolutely an obligation this governing majority owes to doctors and nurses! We will do our best to fulfil this obligation as much as possible in the future, although we will absolutely be able to redeem the human and civic obligation for what they heroically did in this cursed time to protect health of the population of this country. I am very glad and let anyone claiming the opposite burst out in fury, but I am overly happy and excited that this time, which shook the world and this enemy that like nobody in the history of mankind sent whole nations around the world in a forced total lockdown and locked the largest part of the planetary economy, it didn’t find us with the hospitals of few years ago; with hospital wards lacking medicines, medical instruments and non-operational medical equipment, without heating systems and even without enough sheets and blankets and toilets where leaking water mixing with wastewater… This enemy didn’t find us without supplies of special protective equipment for our heroes serving in the first line of fire and without the worldwide desperately sought respirators for all patients at a final stage of the battle against the deadly disease.
Continued useless talks and fabricated accusations in the heinous and ugly game of the miserable tradition of this country’s political life, the same old outcry and the pseudo-opposition’s haughtiness were all blown away and dissipated just like the car emissions and the air pollution that has significanlu improved thanks to the quarantine. What would go down in our common history of this time of extraordinary natural disaster upon humanity is the result, is our extremely positive outcome in this life-or-death battle, which neither the brutality of ignorant, nor the nonsense talk of the impatient people would be able neither to undo, nor to depreciate it in the judgment of people, let alone the judgement of time.
Nothing is ever perfect. No government and no leader around the world, since the birth of the state concept, has never been and will never be infallible and flawless. They have never avoided and will never be able to avoid wrong decisions, let alone criticism and public “massacring” just because of the approach towards a problem, judgment over a public issue or certain decisions made by the government, especially when there is no time to wait for. Everyone without exception, including even the most glorious ones in the history of the world politics, if they were to resurrect again, let alone the ordinary people of this world like me, if they were to come back they would definitely find many things need to be corrected, changed or never repeated again.
In this case, I have yet to complete an evaluation and assessment I do always make about myself and mu performance and we at the government team and the parliamentary group have yet to asses this phase. But if I were to go back again, I would no longer respond to many offending, brutal and useless commentators on my Facebook page! I don’t know how to accomplish this task so vitally important to a whole country and nation without passion, without fighting for my beliefs and truths. I strongly defend my beliefs and truths, but this and the way I do this could sound as arrogance to many – and perhaps it is arrogance, I don’t know! But what I do know for sure, no matter whether those who outrageously claim the opposite like it or not, is that I don’t kill people, I don’t steal, I don’t blackmail, fabricate things, I don’t go to sleep earlier than others, I don’t wake up later than others, I don’t indulge myself in Tirana bars and restaurants and, to cut it short, I don’t work to live, but I live to work!
If I were not to live and experience this duty as a mission for the country of my forefathers, grandfathers, and children as a incredible privilege to help as many people as possible and heal as much as possible the inherited countless wounds of the past of this country, I wouldn’t tolerate and put up even for a single second, let alone years, with the entire pack of the diverse fauna of our political and media jungle. I am neither a politician by birth, nor do I want to die as a politician. I cannot be and I don’t actually want to be the professional politicians who offers a face when the cameras are on and an about-face with the cameras are off.
I can’t also be the politician of the kind that people of all walks of life and colours see them just like electoral blocs and the politician to whom it is professionally easy to shun the citizens’ plights and their written comments. But, taking notice that the answers I provide to those who are willing to grab my throat, according to me unjustly and because of me, but certain issues, may sound inappropriate, irony and arrogance, moreover in this time when like never before we found ourselves on the board of the same boat, I feel somehow guilty! Although I have been driven by the good purpose to defend my belief, clarify my and the government’s position in a public space like Facebook and not to hurt anyone at all, let alone to quarrel with this and that, I apologize to anyone who directly or indirectly has been unintentionally hurt due to my open communication.
Since we are talking about Facebook, I would like to make it clear to all of those who complained and keep complaining about the competences my Facebook page allegedly took over from the state and who wrongly believe that the decisions over this period were merely my Facebook posts. Everything I have posted on Facebook has been previously officially decided and written on the state’s formal acts during the entire period of the fight against Covid-19 virus. My Facebook page has merely helped to speed up and expand the space of the information dissemination on the decisions taken step by step, which, due to the nature of this war, just like it is the case around the world, have been numerous ones and have been often changed day after day. Would have this been possible via the traditional media only?
Albania today, no matter whether some like it or not, is a success story among few other nations on the map of this worldwide war. I will and we should do whatever it takes to return life back to normal, so that – God forbid it- it doesn’t become a boomerang, but normalization goes on. All nurseries and kindergartens across the country will reopen on Monday, June 1. The country’s land borders will also reopen. We will reopen traffic to cars and vehicles all over the country and of course beaches will be open too. However, we will allow no private subjects, except hotels, to raise tents and lay sun loungers on sand without having obtained a special authorization, which will be issued in next few days, together with the application form. This is the last week where restrictive rules will be applied in the red zones and this is the last weekend when driving from and to the red zones is banned. More details will be announced on Friday, when the official directive is issued by the health authorities and when via this social network I will spread more information about it.
Dear friends, I would like to once again thank each and every one you and express gratitude for whatever you gave away from yourselves. Once again, please be careful now when everything depends on each of you. I and this government will continue working day and night and will soon unveil the Comprehensive Economic Recovery Plan, which is taking shape with the ambition not only to eliminate the effects of this difficult time, but also emerge stronger from this unexpected collective suffering. We will invest all our energies and you will see for yourself that starting early June the sites of the reconstruction program will start open one by one and more quake-affected families will move into their new homes by end of year, just like the sites for construction of new residential neighbourhoods, which we are currently designing, will be launched and implemented step by step, along with an ambitious investment plan that will inject more strength to the country’s economy, will create fresh employment opportunities and give a new breathe to this country’s organism that has been hit hard, but has not collapsed. On the contrary, next year today everyone will figure out that we have emerged stronger and hopefully much better from this assault.
To conclude, I would say that I am glad that despite tremendous difficulties of the application system and often wrong applications that have caused some delays, a total of 64, 964 individuals have already received second tranche of the “wartime” payment and they will soon receive the third one under the initial Support Package, whereas a total of 109, 664 individuals have received the cash bonus of 400,000 lek under the Extended Support Package. In the meantime, thousands more cases have been carefully reviewed after these people, for some reasons, have failed to receive the payment of 400,000 lek, primarily because of the unjustifiable and incomprehensible negligence by the owners of the businesses where they work, mostly companies with an annual turnover more than $140,000. We will not let them alone, no matter what. They will soon have the payment of 400,000 lek transferred to their bank accounts, because I say what I can do and I do what I say.
Thank you! Thank you again for your resistance, patience, understanding and better future definitely lies ahead, but in the meantime don’t forget to wash your hands as often as possible, because the virus is still with us.
