Good afternoon and thank you each and every one of you for contributing through the questions you have forwarded via the social media regarding this live stream discussion session.
I would also like to thank the participating journalists!
Question from the public via social media: How much is Albania prepared to deal with another potential cyber-attack and how safe is our data?
PM Edi Rama: Yes, this is really a matter for serious concern and a fresh concern, as we have been under constant cyber-attacks for many years now, but to a lesser degree, so to say, in terms of the capacity and penetration speed and rate. This is actually a true military aggression, of course inside the virtual realm of the internet and all digital systems, a savage aggression with a clear purpose; namely eventual data elimination and irreversible destruction of all the systems, practically leaving a scorched earth behind. This is the conclusion drawn by the experts, who assisted us in this common effort and who certainly have the greatest expertise and understanding today, namely the Microsoft experts, their super team specifically built against the cyber threats and the experts of other important U.S. teams. The attack failed to achieve its objective, as damages are significantly minor compared to the degree of aggressiveness. Practically the systems have been restored and are all operational. This war definitely goes on and we can’t help but prepare to face other potential attacks, and on the other hand, prepare to definitely achieve another level of our cyber protection.
Comment by members of public via the social media: One can’t exactly know where to start with the complaints about you as a cabinet, from the highest prices of every good to the skyscrapers in Tirana that are suffocating us, or the national flag bearing the communist red star that is emerging in every corner as if we are still a communist and not a democratic country. However, the answers would be t o your benefit, so you better not. It would be wise for you to answer or respond by doing something better. Thank you!
PM Edi Rama: Of course, if it were to be an answer to my benefit, this would have never been absolutely the way to engage in an open discussion and conversation or have my conversation open to everyone as part of my duty. On the other hand, the problems are definitely for real, the challenges are certainly real ones, and of course we do no longer live in seclusion and therefore we partake in the woes of everyone, every nation, as we are not the only ones to experience hardship and by this I mean the inflation, namely the exponential increase of the energy price and the hardship the world is experiencing because of a military aggression taking place in our continent. I also mean the extreme hardship and difficulty the truth is increasingly going through and encountering while seeking to find its way in a world full of lies, in a world where the conspiracy theories face no longer any barrier and practically dominate the citizens’ daily lives not only in Albania, but anywhere around the world.
Comment via social media: The pensions hike was at a very low rate, whereas consumer prices are soaring.
PM Edi Rama: This is definitely a very sensitive issue and helping retired people and social categories of the society is part of the daily work and concern, a matter troubling me and everyone. No matter how high the pension rate goes, we still can’t tell ourselves, let alone the pensioners, that we have done enough for them. It is never enough, but it is the first time in 30 years that we decide pension indexation twice within a single year, once in April, when the annual pension indexation takes place, and starting in October on, the pensions will be indexed again to help retired people to best cope with the price increase for the basic food items, because of the rising inflation rate. However, it is a fact that the pension payment has been increased on average by 15,000 lek. It is absolutely insufficient, but it is still higher than it was and any increase in any payment is a must amid such a situation so that we can help citizens to cope with their daily lives in the face of an inflation rate that Albania is actually keeping under relative control compared to other countries in the region.
The inflation rate is 17% in North Macedonia, 13% in Kosovo, and over 13% in Serbia, whereas inflation in Albania was 8% in August. Albania’s overall inflation rate was slightly over 6% in the past eight months, relatively lower than the inflation rate estimated well over 10 an 11% in the countries in the region.
These are not government figures, but the data published by the Eurostat. Of course, a lot is needed to be done, but growth in the second anti-crisis package, providing support not only for retired people, is a stable growth, not a limited temporarily package, but one that will further consolidate next year, when we will index pensions and wages, no matter significant, because of an inflation rate that nobody can now predict.
Question from journalists: I would like to begin by asking precisely about the cyber-attacks and with the investigation now complete, I would like to know why Albania was attacked by Iran and on Wednesday the Defence Minister stated that the army’s defence systems haven’t been affected, because they are secure and autonomous. What happened to the security of TIMS system and the security of the government portal? The second question is about the most recent pressing issues, namely the Russian covert funds. The United States is really worried about the Russian funding for the political parties in the country and has the U.S. Ambassador voiced concern about possible involvement of the political party you head in these Russian covert funding after a meeting with the representatives of the political parties, including the Socialist Party?
PM Edi Rama: The Socialist Party receiving Russian funding? How did you jump to such a conclusion? Or is this just another attempt to deflect attention and the course of the topic? This is a topic that when we handled and presented to the public, many of you, including those who now come at the forefront, considering this issue as another means in their infighting, laughed at us. We were ridiculed and nobody from the majority of the public, including the majority of the media outlets and the political parties, except the Socialist Party, took the trouble to further investigate this issue. You should ask me this question, in the sense that this is a question you should address to the prosecutor’s office and the justice system, because politics after all has made its own choices and the media have made their choices too.
The truth is that we successful withstood the cyber-attack and if you were to look at the report compiled by the world’s highest expertise in the front of the cyber war, Namely the Microsoft’s expertise and the U.S. specialised agencies that have worked with us, the truth is that the aggression has failed to achieve its objectives. The cyber attack was as such that it could have wiped out everything and could have collapsed all our digital systems and sent us back in time to the year zero. This didn’t happen and our systems recovered and were restored swiftly and this is a success. The attack was launched by conglomeration of groups, including a notorious one among the top ten most dangerous cyber terror groups in the world, that is responsible for attacks against countries that have long ago taken steps in the digital world, ranging from Israel, world digital superpower, to Saudi Arabia, which is becoming a superpower of the digital world, to Kuwait and Cyprus, and the attacks have been really heavy and damaging attacks.
Question from citizens via social media: Will the public order be ever restored and no lives are lost every 24 hours in any square centimetre of the country, as you had already promised during the election campaign for the post of the Prime Minister?
PM Edi Rama: It is not true that people’s lives are lost every 24 hours. It is true we have been encountering our own problem in terms of the security and public order given a number of sensible murders in August in particular, but facts are facts. There has been a time when more than 100 people were regularly killed every year in Albania and I am not talking about 100 years ago, but precisely before we took office in 2013. A total of 112 people were killed in 2012, while this number has been halved during our term in office and this is a fact, and despite what happened in August, this year has actually registered the lowest homicide rate in the past 30 years. This is a fact. Albania’s homicide rate is lower than the average of the European continent. Albania is safer than ever before and this is shown not only through the overall figures and facts from the ground, but also through the fact that the tourist Albania is making really fast steps forward, as the data on the tourist numbers show this year.
Comment via social media: You have told us that an overwhelming majority of the Albanian families consume less than 800 kWh a month, yet the media reports that this is an annual average consumption rate of electricity. A family may consume more than 800 kWh of electricity during the cold winter season, so the electricity price will be increased for almost everyone.
PM Edi Rama: I don’t want to engage in a debate with the media. It is increasingly becoming really a challenge regarding what we tend to listen at a time when lies, slanders and defamations are becoming omnipresent, especially in a country like ours that – as I was informed a day ago – topped the overall ranking in Europe for the hate speech in the media or in the public communication, as I wouldn’t exclude politics from this. A total of 1.009 million families consume up to 800 kWh per month and 40,000 families consume more than 800 kWh. At the peak season, when it is extremely hot or extremely cold, the number of 40,000 families could jump to around 60,000. Now I would like to compare 1.09 million with 60,000 families and I think you would find out what the result is.
We shouldn’t forget this fact. The households consuming more than the 800 kWh will have to pay a higher price rate for each kilowatt hour they consume over the 800 kWh limit. The measure will enter into force on October one and it is initially projected to last until December. So it is not a permanent price. This price rate could be reviewed depending on the country’s power generation capacities that are reliant on the hydro situation.
-I would like to go back to the Russian funding for the Democratic Party and ask whether you Mr. Rama have been personally involved in closing this case, also known as “Basha case” of Russian funding, because the DP leader and former Prime Minister Sali Berisha most recently, even a day ago, accused you and the Secretary General of the Prime Minister’s office of alleged involvement in efforts to close this case before it is sent to the justice?
PM Edi Rama: The one you call as the DP leader is a disgrace for everyone citing him as a reference for information. So, he is not a disgrace to anyone else but to those who blindly refer as a source of information and as a reference point in the public debate, because he is the monument of lies, slander, defamation and accusations.
He is an unrivalled liar since Albania was founded as a state. What are you asking me for? Are you asking me to consider this question seriously and provide an answer? Don’t you know the answer? I will not take the trouble to tell you the answer. Isn’t he the very person, who strongly denied any possible link or connection of the Democratic Party with the Russian funding? Isn’t he the very person who fervently defended Lulzim Basha? What am I to be blamed for?
This is the fact and here we are today. But, it is not over yet. You will be soon taken by surprise about many more things to come. I am telling you, you will be all taken aback. There are many other issues yet to be revealed and you will show up again to ask me “whether I was involved in closing these issues, or postponing their revelation?” What am I supposed to do more than this? What are we supposed to do more than this?
Comment via social media: “Leave Basha’s Russians alone and take a look at your own Russians. Will you comment on the former FBI chief, your personal friend, who is under investigation for his own ties to Russia? He has opened a business in Tirana too.
PM Edi Rama: Novruz Aliaj (the name of the citizen) is definitely my follower in social media and certainly seems to consult other sources of information too, but he is not to be blamed.
Who are supposed to be my Russians? The former head of counterintelligence at the FBI field office has been and is unquestionably my friend. If he has an issue to settle with the U.S. justice, it is his problem and let the U.S. justice speak about that. Justice is not done this way. People cannot be blamed and found guilty this way, because this is horrible.
It is about an issue happening in the United States of America and it has nothing to do with me or the Albanian government.
Comment via social media: “Why it took so long for you to amend the law on the communist-era state security collaborators? Is Ilir Meta becoming a serious trouble for you?
PM Edi Rama: I don’t know whether we were late to act or time was ripe for us to amend the law upon a request forwarded by the Authority for Information on Former Communist Police Secret Files to shed light on an issue that has its own weight and merit in the sense that it could have gone unreported, and it is the case concerning the citizen I.M, a former secret police spy, a profile that raises suspicions that he is the former president, former parliament speaker and former prime minister and this issue has certainly to be addressed.
