This is a long-delayed project for more than 75 years and once I used to think that many things were self-evident, but for the sake of truth, the self-evident things have become over time increasingly incomprehensible and understanding over the self-evident things has become more and more impossible, because we have ushered in an era of absurdity, as this parliament shows each Thursday, with the debate becoming ever more absurd and less ethical in the sense of minimum human ethics.

Someone takes the floor and speaks his or her mind and levels all sorts of allegations and later says: “This is my conviction. You are not a judge for me to present any evidence.”

This project practically eradicates communism after so many years when it comes to awarding the state orders, medals and honours and this is based on facts and evidence and not on opinions.

For more than 40 years, the Red Flag of Labour, Hero of Socialist Labour, Distinguished Master in Profession Titles, Distinguished Oilman and Distinguished Miner titles, Glory of Mother medal, Good Service to People medal and stuff like that.

Such medals and orders continued to be awarded over the years, with some minor adjustments and a law which was finally drafted in 2013 before the new government was to take office and the Distinguished Master title was simple replaced by Great Master, a system with Albania – I state it competently because work on this project has taken so long – being the only country in Europe, if not in the world because globe is something bigger, but we are the only country in Europe awarding a national flag medal, which is the successor of the communist flag order, a Yugoslav-era inspiration, and a title “Knight of the Flag Order”, but nobody is able to tell what this Order is, based on the way how Orders are built and work. Nobody can tell how one can be presented with the Knight order. This is not addressed and regulated by law.

Indeed, one is awarded the Knight order yet he lacks both a horse and the group of accompanying knights. The medals system includes the Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg Medal, but also the Knight of Skanderbeg Order and again such an order doesn’t exist.

The most beautiful of it is that we have also robbed Mother Teresa’s order, because such an order exists, namely the Order of the Missionaries of Charity. We have stolen it and have included it in the national legislation as Order of Mother Teresa for many years now and if you are to look at who has been awarded the Order of Mother Teresa are mostly people who are neither monks or nuns.

Something even stranger happened in 2013, when the Order was replaced by the Medal.

We think that it has been only once when the Albanian state has been really a serious one and integrated in the entire community of states. This was the time when King Zog hired the needed expertise and borrowed the proper international model, without having to invent anything and built a system, which was neither more nor less, but an integrated system as part of the entire constellation of order and medal systems, which are not 35, but just two of them. First, it is the continental system based on the French system and the Anglo-Saxon system based on the model of the United Kingdom. Even Japan’s system is based on one of the two.

Strangely enough, King Zog lifted the titles of the peerage under the founding statute in 1928, but such titles are restored by the President of the Republic. No titles of peerage were awarded during the monarchic regime, but they were introduced by the President of the Republic of Albania. There were no titles of peerage during the monarchy, but such titles exist now, but of course we lack the noblemen. There could have been noblemen during the monarchic regime, but no titles of peerage.

The Albanian state was more serious when it came to the medals and awards in 1925, when it was just 13 years old. However, 110 years later, the state resembles the persona non-grata who wanders around and it is both lamentable and laughable regarding the medals and orders.

I heard that a heated debate had been raging over the word “commanders” and I was really thrilled to bring it here, because it is a word that is inflected in all languages and it is exactly the word used also by the team set up by King Zog to build the orders and medals system in Albania, and the word “commanders” is a prevailing model. Someone proposes to become a “commander”. The commander can’t be ranked lower than the officer.

So, today we are introducing a new legislation that reintroduces Albania into the system of the European countries. The new proposed bill ultimately takes Albania away from the Yugoslav communism, Soviet and Chinese communism of all those years that happened together with the fury of medals, badges and orders and reintroduces the country into the system like every other country. The countries in the region, all the countries in Europe, in the West and in the East now share the same system and have the same rules. And in no other country one has awarded a medal to the founder of the Albanian state. More precisely, the previous President of the Republic went that far to award a medal to Ismail Qemali, the founding father of the Albanian state. You heard the previous speaker saying that a work group had been set up and had analyzed all the heroes of the Vlora war.

 So a group of people, though honourable ones. looked into all those who wrote history and decided to award them medals posthumously. For us to understand and not nod incoherently whilst listening to each other.

What is a badge awarding?

What is an Order awarding?

What is a Medal?

They all represent a moment with certain people being distinguished from others. Living humans are distinguished among other living people. There could be not a moment when the living humans discern and award medals to the dead ones, who might have been more prominent than all the living people combined. In the meantime, medals are produced and awarded to the great-grandsons and great-granddaughters, asking the relatives and family members of Ismail Qemali to report and receive a medal awarded to him posthumously. This is something that hasn’t happened anywhere and doesn’t happen anywhere around the world.

The medal-awarding posthumously is typical Albanian and post-communism phenomenon. An unimaginable Hamlet-like thing, a unique provincial bragging, one has never encountered in the history of the planet.

We will put an end to this chapter by law and this way we will join the mosaic of the European states. It is the only piece missing in that mosaic and that is the stone piece of Albania.

Albania is a completely different world when it comes to the medals and awards. More than 500 medals have been awarded during a single term in office of the President. This is unprecedented and this is based on no reference whatsoever. Of course, the new bill won’t cancel the medals already given away. Whoever has been presented with those honours they have received them during a certain era and as such they all can enjoy them. None of those medals will be cancelled. However, the law makes sure that Albania is no longer a ridiculous country in this field and fortunately we are now provided the opportunity to deliver on this too. 

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Prime Minister Edi Rama’s response to opposition at parliament session

Mrs Açka, I listened very carefully to your speech and I would like to primarily tell you that I am not made of concrete, but I am made of flesh and bone and I was neither born a Prime Minister, nor I will die as such. This is a period in my life when I am serving in this office and I feel immensely privileged to do so, but there comes a time when enough is enough and I am really sorry that you, too, a woman of letters, did the same mistake, accusing me of starting the argument. But, I didn’t!

I refuse to accept that the words “mobster, criminal, thief” be granted the status of universally accepted citizenship, and the person to whom these words are addressed should simply be advised to remain calm, “keep calm.”

Whoever is a criminal, whoever is a thief or a mobster is subject to justice and I think that telling someone “you are thief, a criminal or a mobster,” you have actually uttered the most serious accusation. And after having accused someone this way, this someone would ask you present evidence supporting your claims. But failing to present single evidence means that he who levels such allegations is a buffoon, because only a buffoon can take over to make his or her face, voice, figure and whole being available to a public show. A tragic-comic show to laugh and cry at the same time, a show staged for its goal, but a buffoon remains just a buffoon. And I am really sorry, but this is something I felt obliged to do for the sake of my son, the youngest one, so that he realizes once again my opinion on all this moral turpitude and defilement constantly repeated as if being the daily bread.

I think that you talk a lot about young people who are leaving the county, you talk about education and all sorts of things and it is so good of you to do so, but you should raise your own awareness about this abusive language; the abusive words and allegations against others. There are people who can use excessive words, insulting words, but they should apologize and life goes on. But reiterating such allegations indefinitely  against others, just because they are your political opponents, reiterating words  like “thief, mobster, clown, this is a mafia action, this is a mafia goal, etc,” it actually becomes unbearable and one cannot swallow it and therefore I will ask the Parliament Speaker via an official request so that whoever level such baseless accusations should face consequences as stipulated by the parliamentary rules of procedure and provide explanations about it.

If one possesses sensitive information he can’t share with the public after having named one “a mobster”, “a criminal” or a thief, he or she should share such information with the relevant Parliamentary Committee so he or she is not excluded from parliament. Such words should never be used here. There are thousands of ways for us to engage in debates.

You just criticized me and I am pleased to go on debating with you, because you used none of the abovementioned words, you didn’t level criminal charges.

What people might think when listening to all of these?

What do young people think when hearing all of these?

What do mothers think when hearing these? Do they think that we are a bunch of criminals, a bunch of thieves, a bunch of mafia bosses and that you have come here to save Albania from us?

This could be your perception, but you should at least present facts.

You also said that you have nothing to do and that there is no reason for you to worry about the special anti-corruption prosecution office, SPAK. It is impossible for you Mrs Açka to worry about SPAK, because you are a writer and you haven’t dealt with managerial duties even for a single day and have never taken part in sharing the rights and funds.  If you are referring to all of you in the opposition, I would remind you Mrs Açka that you have actually joined a political party, whose long-time leader has been assigned as persona non-grata for major corruption and he hasn’t been declared as such domestically, by this parliament, but he has been declared persona non-grata for major corruption by the United States of America.

Do you realize what we are talking about?

Then, if “SPAK is dealing with us,” as you put it, indeed SPAK doesn’t deal with us, but with certain individuals who are subject to SPAK and, to return to this topic again, I am personally happy, and not worried about it. Of course, I feel sorry for individuals I have been working with and I am working with when they end up facing charges and justice.  I am really sorry for this. However, on the other hand, SPAK and all the new justice bodies that I have insisted upon their creation  in this country and I am not someone thinking something and doing something else, and if SPAK is investigating cases that concern this governing majority. This means that Albania is not under a regime; Albania is not under an absolute power, but it is a country where the justice institutions work, despite their deficiencies, but still it works as justice has launched investigations into ruling majority officials.

This has never happened during the 110 years of history of this country. It has never happened that officials from a governing political party are indicted and face justice and this is a new normality of a democratic system that exists with an absolute separation of powers.

If I were to claim that you “Mrs Açka have been involved in exploitation of prostitution in the Netherlands,” would you remain calm? Would you be the one who should prove that is not true? You would certainly and rightly go out of your mind and response by resorting to words that would rightly be very extreme ones. If I am the one to make such a claim, I would also present evidence to support it. I can’t say: “I am convinced that you have been running prostitution in the Netherlands.” So, it is the same thing.

Finally, you said you are the “Great Labour Master” title-holder. The title’s name awarded to you is “Great Labour Master”. Of course, you are a great master of the word, although the award is called differently. The title has been awarded to you and you won’t be stripped of it. We don’t cancel the titles awarded previously.

Therefore, Mrs Açka, I would beg that you understand my reaction when there comes a moment when I can’t deal with a buffoon who constantly repeats the words “mobster, thief, criminal.”  And when I ask him to present any evidence to support all these accusations alleging that the Socialist Party parliamentary group, the group’s chairman and everyone else have launched an intimidation campaign in a bid to grab an additional vote, to catch the Constitutional Court, he stands up abruptly and you already heard what he said. I can no longer accept it. And I can’t help but ask him whether he is really an idiot or is he just acting as one, because such accusations are really extreme ones. If I were to hide behind an offshore company, I would have been facing justice, not serving in office as Prime Minister.

I have challenged them, yet they have failed to present evidence. It might be true that I have used this sort of language and I can’t change it, a language that may annoy some and may often cause trouble. However, I am a man of flesh and blood too. I possess my own weapons too. I challenge to reveal a single case of accusing the former Prime Minister, today’s persona non-grata whom I have never cherishes or his successor, who is now missing after handing over the party’s stamp to you, and I don’t know where is now, but if you ever succeed and find him, please ask him whether I have told him: “Shut up, you criminal!” “Shut up, you thief!” “Hush, you mafia member! If you would ever find a case of me accusing him of being a mobster, a thief and a criminal, I would apologize immediately, because these are not merely accusations, but verbal scandals.

Therefore, I think that individuals like you Mrs Açka, who have embraced politics as citizens, and not as individuals seeking to lead a political career in terms of the official posts, we shouldn’t waste time here in Parliament and, most importantly, they should follow the lead and imitate others. On the contrary, such individuals should differentiate from others and raise their voice and seek to strike an ethical balance in this very hall. Only then I would be ready to…