Address by Prime Minister Edi Rama at today’s session of parliament:

The debate over the electoral system is an endless debate that will never end, not only in Albania, but nowhere else. The truth is that with the system we have chosen, regardless of how it is intended to be interpreted and commented by those concerned, to justify their defeats, or their media agendas, we have now a parliament we would have never had should the past system was still into force. Why?

Suffice it to look at the number of female MPs and, with due respect about what it could be said regarding certain advantages of the direct election under a majority voting system, let’s not forget that it was not 80 but just 10-15 years ago when the parliament had just 2 or three female members. It is a fact that under the current voting system we have provided conditions for a more representative vote for the society and not simply depend on certain individuals who can win their parliamentary mandate in an area or in another area but who, at least in current stage of our country’s development, they don’t ensure a diversified representation and much closer to the colours of society itself. This is a fact.

This can certainly be testified primarily by all the ladies who are here in Parliament and I believe that anyone with a parliamentary life experience in Albania and developments in the Parliament can easily draw a comparison between the present and the past.

Albania’s parliament has been targeted, ridiculed, it has been subject to smear and mud-slinging, and so on, for 1001 reasons, but the truth is, as facts showed, that all that all that mud thrown against parliament, in most of cases, has been simply propaganda. Of course, it is not that the problems, which that have triggered all that mud-slinging and smear campaign, are inexistent, but I would beg a lot so you always keep in mind the dynamics of development, keep in mind the society where we live, keep in mind we come from and surely look up to the horizon where we want to go.

We are again on an interesting Thursday. Those who walked out the parliament have gathered in front of the door. It is Wednesday indeed, but it is always Thursday when the Parliament’s sessions are usually held, and because I have wasted many Thursdays dealing with your honourable colleagues and heads of your political parties, you should not pretend as if you have nothing to do with them. You are just like them, but the only difference is that you are still in an adaption phase and I expect you soon to live up to their expectations when they included you on the electoral lists. So, they are assaulting you because they are now jealous as you turned out to be smarter than them. They walked out and are now seeking to enter inside. This is the weirdest thing. They walked out themselves and are now pushing through the police cordon to walk in.

The question that should be made to explain and share this absurd with the citizens is: Why did the walk out of the Parliament?

They abandoned Parliament because after being at a loss for words, after becoming short of eggs and ink they decided to walk out and take the street, thinking that by doing so they would drag entire Albania, they would drag Parliament and would drag Albania’s European agenda.

They took the street as they are used to win without being a majority.

I would remind you that you haven’t been a majority neither in 2005, nor in 2009, therefore, being used to win without being a true majority and by resorting to something similar to the actions launched two years ago, when they assumed half of the cabinet posts, they now decide to leave in order to take over entire cabinet. They believe they will repeat the 2017 success, but they re-joined the game just because we gave them the opportunity in 2017, but we will no longer offer them this opportunity. Because they gained what they asked for, but they did not do what they pledged to do.

Specifically, your chairman – although Mr. Murizi denies it, but indeed he is your chairman and my friend too – Lulzim Basha pledged that in addition to the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, the Directorate of the Power Distribution Operator (OSHEE), the ALUIZNI Directorate, he would recognize the sovereign’s verdict and who was to win the elections would govern the country and the defeated party would stay in opposition.

This is what we demanded from him. We demanded nothing else.

We gave him half of the cabinet and they were defeated.

Is there any Albanian who would ever believe that we who defeated Sali (Berisha) together with those who are “martyrs” of the DP reform now at a time when Sali headed the government and could use any state mechanisms, we would need to buy votes in order to defeat Lulzim?!

We defeated Sali and his entire state in 2007. We defeated him in 2011. I am not taking into account the 2009 elections, but I am calling it a victory without a majority, although he grabbed the crutch to stand on foot. We defeated him in 2013 and we will certainly defeat them.

Are you out of your mind? Who would ever believe these?

Whom are they telling that votes are being stolen? Whom are they telling that the vote is not free as long as we are here.

No, they stand no chance of winning elections as long as we are here. This is the truth and that’s why they took the street, thinking that our international partners, at some point, will get sick and tired of us and, as they have always done, will come to Albania and tell us: “Now you should tackle this.”

They have started to float the idea of the alleged illegitimacy of the MPs they have named themselves. You are here not on your free will, but because you were included on their lists and you have campaigned together with them.

I am affirming it today right here. We will not give way to this solution. Those who left and abandoned their duty and violated the right of those who voted to represent them in the Parliament, will not return back here through extra-legal solutions or any kind of dialogue leading to a deal of this kind. This will not happen.

As for the electoral reform – to make it clear – it was not us to introduce the electoral reform as a condition for a scanning process of Albania’s efforts to fulfil its obligations before the country opens the accession negotiations. The electoral reform was included on the list of conditions by their friends in Berlin, their sister parties in Berlin, and we have welcomed it.

Why did we welcome it?

Personally and we all, exactly for the same reason that Mr. Murrizi highlighted in his speech, in order to put an end to the political election administration, we support a depoliticized electoral administration that serves the process and respects the law. If a party militant is ready to knock his own head on the door of the Prime Minister’s office, is able to spray ink on the walls of the Ministry of Interior, willing to go to jail just for the sake of those who urge him to take the street, he can definitely willingly violate the law when being part of the Electoral Commission. Meanwhile, a teacher or any other state employee chosen by lot, he or she won’t sacrifice their skin for the sake of any political party. They don’t join the electoral commission to fill or empty the ballot boxes to serve interest of any political party leader.

As for this issue, right from the start, we have wished to overcome such a political barbaric stage and we are ready to do so. This is a key and basic OSCE/ODIHR recommendation. We are also ready to address every other recommendation, which of course, for 1001 other reasons, won’t tackle the matter of trust or distrust, since no electoral system has been invented to date to grant the majority to a minority, no election system has been invented to give Lulzim Basha the power on the table, or without winning in the citizens’ hearts and votes. Meanwhile, we have our own approach and we will enable our compatriots living abroad to cast their vote. We will do this, regardless whether they want or they do not want it.

We are ready to do something else too, although it is not our approach and it not something that, I personally, for example, am not particularly optimistic about, but, anyway, since they have bent the Albanians’ and the international partners’ ears by repeatedly calling for “e-voting” and “e-counting,” we have already conducted the tests and are ready to try and walk on that path by introducing the offline and not the online voting technology.

Both of them – the first a result of the opposition’s tent and the second it an indispensability to make sure that emigrants cast their vote in elections – are not recommendations set forth by ODIHR, yet we are ready to include them in the new electoral reform.

The approach adopted by the Socialist Party’s Secretary for Election Issues and his proposal to include Democratic Party – I mean the extra-parliamentary Democratic Party and not the one present in the Parliament – by giving a seat to the largest opposition party in the Parliamentary Committee on the Electoral Reform so that it contributes and gives its opinion, is a sign of goodwill to create a space so that the only process of the rules of game we have launched together with them and every Albanian political party, if you will, finally completes. The Electoral Reform sets the rules of the game. The election law and the regulation pursuant to which the political parties enter the pitch and compete against each other. This is the only case and the only issue we are ready to sit with them to discuss, listen and accept their suggestions right within the framework defined by the OSCE/ODIHR. There is no other issue we can discuss with them.

You have the right to participate in the Parliament. Normally, it could have been us the ones to worry that you could become a majority. The Committee will not then feature equal representation. But they will take none of the seats that are entitled to your parliamentary groups.

While we stand alone on the other side. So it would be normally us the ones to complain about this and not you. They will be granted a free seat and they can use it. It is up to them whether they will join or not the Committee. We will not wait for them indefinitely. We will provide them the opportunity to join the Committee and contribute to the only issue about which there is a reason to sit and dialogue. We have nothing else to discuss with them.

Together with you here in Parliament we will jointly discuss new amendments to the Criminal Code about tougher penalties against vote-buying and vote fraud. We have no reasons to ask and discuss this issue with them. This should be very clear to everyone. It is not the idea that together with them, we do nothing but the framework set by the European Council’s recommendation in the conclusions document after the opposition lobbied to their friends in the European People’s Party family, calling for the electoral reform. The truth is that they have not even taken the trouble to say how do they think this electoral reform. However, we will wait them. If we are to understand that the European Commission and the European Commission demand that the electoral law is adopted by the Parliament before a decision to open the negotiations is made, because it has been written on the text, we will pass the legislation here and we will refer to the OSCE/ODIHR only, without including other elements.

Of course, the electoral reform we will adopt here will not apply to the June local elections. There is no way it can be applied to June elections. We can’t introduce the depoliticization of electoral administration in the local polls, because it would require a total restructuring and it should be done not just because it is stipulated by law, but it should have been already done for organizational reasons. Nothing else, but the OSCE/ODIHR framework and a clear commitment that from now on the Electoral Reform is a top priority and that we will return to the migrants vote issue again and we are ready to discuss every other aspect with you. The law is not carved on the stone and as such is unchangeable. Should there be arguments and understanding, should there be reasons to review other aspects to, we are open and ready.

As for the free seat in the Committee, their seat is worth just for that and nothing else. A deadline has been set on that. They may still have hope that negotiators will land from the sky and that they will force us to sit around the table of talks and tell us: “Now, guys, how would you normalize this problem?”

The only possible and indispensable normalization is to put an end to the 30-year old chapter.

This chapter will end now!

It is time to close this chapter.

Every political party that enters the Parliament as an opposition should think well and act as opposition. There is no way to demand snap elections the very next day after swearing in the Parliament. Such calls can be issued for propaganda goals, but they can’t turn into methods of threat, blackmailing and blockage.

They can block the opening of the accession talks too. They are hurting the country’s economy, the tourist season and Albania’s image. It is their responsibility. Let them bear the same of their actions. But they should clearly know that it is the Socialist Party’s historic mission to put an end to this chapter of this procrastination and stall tactic. The Constitution and the law will prevail.

We haven’t been given the mandate to negotiate before the 2021 general elections. Whether there will or will not be early elections is something that can’t be determined by blackmail, threats and negotiations of any kind. This is part of the way how internal strategies are built, but this is just and only the unilateral will of the Socialist Party of Albania, if we deem so, but not because of them.

We have defeated them and you all together and we will defeat you again. Keep this in mind. We will defeat you. So it would be good for you to separate from them as soon as possible and give Albania another opportunity and choice, because we will send those two parties for scrap.

* * *

By highlighting the alleged “18 criminals” you just reminded me of those who walked out of parliament. You actually reduced the number, because they say there are “19 criminals.” This is a number that has been invented at the Democratic Party’s headquarters and you have repeatedly reiterated and disseminated via the trash media. And you keep reiterating it here.

Only one individual with past criminal records has been excluded from the Socialist Party and stripped of the parliamentary date under the so-called decriminalization process. Two other cases have been also recorded, one concerning the Socialist Party’s parliamentary group, and a previous case who have been involved in processes of criminal nature, not because of the decriminalization law, but because of their actions while in office as members of the Parliament. Where are then these 18 or 19 criminals?

Here they are!

This is untrue!

Our parliamentary group combines all categories representing whole territory of Albania. I have stated it thousands of times; just like in any parliamentary group, there are very active MPs in the Parliament, there are MPs with wider representation power in their territory and that’s why they are not so active in the Parliament and they can’t be judged by those who waive the flag of trash media intellectualism.

As for you Ralf, we both share a sense of solidarity as we both are victims in the association of protection against ink. You were lucky enough as you were sprayed a beautiful red ink, which unfortunately is the only ink the doctor of horoscopic sciences uses as they say that fortune can be better told when a little red substance is added to the cup of coffee as the devils jump upwards and you can see who the greatest devil is. I was sprayed with black ink that is Muslim’s party ink as they see nothing else but blackness. They see black and white, and white and black.

So you have no reasons to worry about President’s health. “Junta” wishes good health to President. President is relieved from this burden. When the President tells you that you are an illegitimate MP then you should think why he is telling you that.

Thank you!