Speech by Prime Minister Edi Rama at Parliament on EU Progress Report on Albania at a stage of special importance ahead of the intergovernmental conference with the EU:

This interpellation session, not because it is the first, but because while preparing to speak about the EU Progress Report, as the today’s agenda has it, I was still thinking about a debate you Mr. Valteri and I were engaged at one of the previous parliament’s sessions, when you rightly voiced concern over violence, but you actually exerted violence again. You incited violence again. You inspired violence again and again you gave to all young girls and boys the worst possible example about why a man stays in a public environment and defends his own convictions.

It is unimaginable that a lawmaker takes the floor in Parliament and levels criminal accusations and even provide elaborated details about a case under investigation, saying he knows the assassins, he knows the hitmen, the victims. He even claims to know who wears a cap and who doesn’t, but he has yet to go to the prosecutors and help the investigators to discover the crime. However, you are neither the first, nor the last to do so. You are just the extension of a phalanx that for years now is holding the public debate hostage, has taken the culture of parliamentarism in Albania hostage, not allowing it develop according to European standards, which everyone is talking about, and by actually criminalizing everyone.

There is a saying, according to which “the politics of crime is the greatest support granted to crime.’

Involving in the politics of crime means supporting the cr.

Speaking this way it merely and just means you are promoting the myth of a delinquent, or criminal, discourage the forces fighting crime and, above all, blame and accuse those who actually deserve respect and support.

Of course, different opinions are what help us to better understand and move forward, yet facts are not opinions. Like it or not, you and all those who speak like you, no comparison can be drawn between Albania of today and Albania of yesterday and by yesterday I mean not 100 years ago, but just 5 to 6 years ago, in terms of the fight against crime.

Socialist Party has been attacked and has faced unbridled accusations from a whole criminalizing political strategy.  And do you know why? Precisely because the Socialist Party has been the political force that over the past seven years has given the country administration which have combated crime like never before and this is a universally known fact and not an opinion. Those who seriously fight crime today are being accused of precisely the opposite; those who seriously confront crime today is smeared and assaulted precisely as a collaborator with crime. This is universally known. This has been the case everywhere, in every country that has seriously fought crime. This is has happened to all positive and courageous forces of the society, be them either in justice system or the government, that have decided to confront and combat crime.

It is not an opinion but a fact that Albania has positively delivered in its fight against the organized crime. The fight against crime cannot be gauged by fair tails and half truths that are the biggest lies – actually there could be no bigger lies than the half truths – that are being told Albanians day and night, but this fight is measured through facts and figures.

Of course, what you say, a zero murder rate or a zero fratricide rate, as you like to call it, is merely a fairy tale, because a zero murder rate exists in no democratic country around the world. It just doesn’t exist! No democratic country around the world, even the most developed and sophisticated ones, including the United States that has turned the fight against crime into an art, has ever succeeded in cutting the crime, murder rate and trafficking, even the number of corrupt polices to zero.

Not long ago, but recently the director of the police of Finland, one of the countries on top of the world rankings for low crime rate and almost zero corruption, turned out to have been collaborating with the crime. What does this mean? I believe that the fact that a considerable number of police officers have been arrested, or have been facing criminal charges, removed or suspended from police force during our term in office, doesn’t imply cooperation with crime, doesn’t show a fact like the one you are seeking to describe. It shows totally the opposite! It indicates strong will and commitment to fight crime, be it in front of us or within us.

You need to read the EU Progress Report as the European Commission is a non-corruptible and unquestionable surveyor of all processes in all areas. If you are to look at what the Progress reports find on Albania’s progress in fighting crime you would realize the huge difference between the today and the yesterday.

What is happening was actually unimaginable yesterday; a process of radical overhauling of the justice system, which definitely a complex and long process with its all shortcomings and deficiencies, is taking place. A pursue of the criminal assets of all crime figures over the past 30 years in Albania.

You talk about drivers, capped men and petty criminals, while the place we are here is the Parliament of Albania. This is not the way one should speak here. Of course, people have been speaking this way and continue to do so, but you shouldn’t speak this way here. Moreover, you should understand that, like it or not, the Minister of Interior today is neither an investigator, nor a prosecutor, or the person who should tell police how to look at the surveillance camera images.

Today, not yesterday, the State Police are an independent organization in all its professional activity. You can’t blame and speculate about the police officers. You should respect and honour the state police members any time you see them, because even if 500 or 1000 police officers, if you will, who are not the kind of police officer you and I would like them to be, cannot generalize the whole State Police force, because they are thousands of them and deserve respect. The State Police should definitely improve 1000 things, yet no comparison of whatsoever can be drawn and the organization cannot be likened with the kind of the force it used to be yesterday.

There is a fact that State Police have been assaulted here in Parliament and by the media. But, strangely enough, for years now, when Albanians are asked to name the most trustworthy institution in Albania they name the State Police, which was quite the opposite just six or seven years ago, when people named the State Police when asked which was the most corrupt institution in Albania. And it is not me the one saying this. This is what the EU reports and surveys have found in Albania.

The State Police don’t make the headlines when officers prevent a murder. A story is worth writing only when a murder takes place. But indeed, the crime discovery rate and the apprehension rate for crime perpetrators are incomparable with the rates of the past. Today it is no longer possible for a killer to flee in an unknown direction or hide his traces forever. Do you know this? These are facts and not opinions. I tell you, this is no longer possible, because if you are to look at all operations and raids conducted by the State Police over the past three or four years, you would find out that officers have solved crimes that have been committed two or three years ago and the perpetrators have been sent behind bars.

Of course, the airport heist was definitely sensational news. But, you know quite well that the masterminds of the runway heist at the airport have been caught and sent behind the bars, aren’t they? Ah, well, you may ask that perpetrators have been caught, but the money is still missing?! You think about money only, because anytime you take the floor here, you address to any ruling majority representative seeing them as a tender. But I tell you, if you are to look at the Progress Report, even in the area of the fight against corruption and in the area of tenders too, which, though I can’t openly state that are something to be proud in all their categories, yet the difference is like night and day.

People here constantly talk about the so-called oligarchs, suggesting they are five or ten oligarchs. Why don’t you Mr. Valteri take all facts, documents and statistics on the tenders held in Albania and the facts about funds distribution to support completion of various projects and why don’t you contribute for the process to further improve, because problems are of course many, but the truth is completely different. There are two big truths about this. These are facts and not opinions.

First of all, the biggest businesses, the ones that have become a target of the most heinous assaults as oligarchs, they pay to the Albanian state coffers a lot more than they used to pay until yesterday, and this is not because they have been awarded more project contracts they used to be awarded in the past, because this is absolutely not true and this is what facts show and, on the other hand, if you are to take a look at the beneficiaries their number is much higher today.

We are currently working on the Reconstruction Process and procedures with the firms, either with the ones which will construct the school buildings, or the ones that will build the individual homes, have already completed. Do you know the number of the companies involved in these two processes? Do you know their number or not? They are dozens of companies. They are not two, three or five, but dozens of Albanian companies, which will certainly employ Albanian workers.

I am saying all these, because this way leads us to nowhere. You said I have nothing to do with the previous government administrations. I know that you took a seat in parliament once they abandoned parliament and you have never been involved in an opposition process.

You used to be a calm citizen who respected the white dashed lines on the road and the traffic light and you had nothing to do with the Democratic Party, however, strangely enough, one day you found yourself on their candidates list signed by the DP chairman himself. I have no idea what is your contribution within the Democratic Party, because that party doesn’t promote the ones who respect the road white lines, yet, unfortunately, you speak here just like your party chairman, Lulzim Basha.

To conclude, take a look at what is happening with the electoral reform.

The same thing!

On one hand, they demand everything, while issuing every sort of comments, on the other hand. It is really strange! They demand everything to make things the way they want to and, on the other hand, they do not refrain from issuing every kind of statement against the majority and the parliamentary opposition. You are the rejected sons of DP and you really deserve what they say about you, because it is them bringing you here and you have actually left their ranks. But what do they have against us? The only thing they have against us is the inability to overcome a culture of communication and a culture of politics, which is indeed a serious problem this country faces, along with the way this inability is then reported on the media. We all state we want the European Union and we are all Europeans and this is unquestionably true. We all want Albania integrate into Europe as soon as possible and we all pretend to be most capable of accomplishing this goal, but once we start provide arguments to show why each of us is better than everyone else in doing this, something that has nothing to do with the EU prevails, that is the culture of levelling accusations, defamations, insults and the culture of sowing divisions and psychologically hurt everyone.

I don’t know what one supposedly can ask others to do – I already said when we talked about the case involving the abused teen weeks ago – when scandalous examples are given from this very hall and I wonder how could you and the others, who used to sit in the seats you have taken now, behave exactly in the opposite way you ask your own children not to behave? How come? How could one possibly explain this?

If your children were to do precisely what you do here in Parliament, or precisely what the founding fathers of your party do, then every parent would be really very worried. Imagine for a moment, Mr. Valteri, if the teacher of your son or daughter was to call you and tell that your child uses inappropriate abuse words, neither more nor less than what you already said here.

You would certainly be shocked and appalled and you would certainly apologize a thousand times. But, on the other hand, while taking the floor here you set an example for the girls and boys of this country, telling them “this is the way to become great people”. It just takes taking a microphone and throwing insults, abuse words, accusations and telling lies without taking into account any fact, without respecting other people around there, forgetting that girls and women are present in this room. Do you see these women and mothers here in this hall when you brand people as criminals? Is this the Parliament of criminals? How did this happen? Of course, we have had some problems and every country goes through similar problems, but we are the ones who contributed for such problems to eventually be solved in a way or another. What does this mean then? There are no two sides of Albanians, angels and devils!

We are neither angles, nor devils. You too! You are neither an angel – because if you pretend to be so then we have nothing to talk about – nor a devil. You are merely a devilish angel, emerging in the form of a young politician having nothing to do with the old politics. I believe you will become successful. I wholeheartedly wish you every success, because we really need new political forces. But, if you really want to represent a young generation and a new politics, you need to refrain from speaking the way those who brought you here speak, because this is the oldest and the worst thing to do and it is the gravest of sins committed by this Parliament over the past 30 years. Everything else is questionable and up for discussion. There could be no administration that makes no mistakes. There is no government that makes decisions, which turn out to be wrong ones. Such an administration doesn’t exist in any country around the world. However, there is no parliament around the world where people come together and speak just like they were drunk. It happens only here, in this Parliament.

So, I think that if we really wish to talk about European integration, we need to tackle this problem first, with everyone doing his or her part. Of course, I don’t exclude myself from this entire situation.

But despite this, as long as we are also able to exchange friendly jibes, I believe we are able not to see each other as if we are in a situation with some of us here being angels and others being the devil himself.

We are all Albanians with our deficiencies, desires, passions, firebrand people when believing we are right, but at the end of the day I think we are sufficiently mature not to remain behind the embassies’ doors when it comes to agreeing on issues we need to resolve right here and, on the other hand, anytime we convene here we should not give the example that we cannot function on our own.

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Prime Minister Rama’s reply to Electoral Reform issues raised by the parliamentary opposition:

Mrs. Hajdari, I listened to your remarks very carefully and I can’t avoid replying to your statements. I would have wished that I don’t comment publicly, since the process is still underway and has yet to be finalized due to the delays the extra-parliamentary opposition is causing in terms of detailing the agreement that you personally together with the three other members of the so-called Political Council have already signed at the embassy of a friendly nation.

But, of course, since you referred and cited what I have said long time ago in this very hall and you are now holding me accountable, I am obliged to provide a clarification:

• First of all, what I have stated here some time ago, when the extra-parliamentary opposition had taken the streets and was threatening to stage a permanent revolution, was an appeal to everyone not to waste time, but sit together discuss ways to address the OSCE/ODIHR recommendations and finally deliver on the obligation stemming from what the European Council has written. Later I suggested a second discussion on the topic that is high on your agenda and you are focused on.

But, you never took my proposals into consideration, even you rejected them. This is about you personally and the entire group of those who support this process today. If we were to sit since when the others had made their mind to come to power through violence, then we would be discussing other issues today and not this one. But, this is the example showing the experience has a role and when lacking experience one has to pay the cost.

There is something that nobody can overcome in politics and that is time in all of its aspects. You missed that moment in time, thinking, I don’t know what, but by merely repeatedly playing same old tune and calling for “open lists” and without doing anything else and without taking into account the fact – and strangely enough nobody is now considering now – that the Socialist Party is not like the pyramidal foundation “Populli”. Do you still remember the foundation “Populli”?

Socialist Party is a political force that also has its own interests and, of course, being the biggest political force, its interests are more consistent with the national interests rather than your interests, because it shares a greater responsibility and influence over the country’s fate.

However, this topic is underway. I am sorry, because I also see the public conduct of those outside this parliament, who think they can cross the river by riding the horse backwards, by imposing various conditions constantly, on one hand, and by issuing statements and accusations on a daily basis, on the other.

This is one of the expressions of the political culture, with them being certainly the flag bearers of it, but this is a topic I talked about earlier when addressing one of the heirs of DP in this hall, Mr. Valteri. What concerns me most is the fact that you still keep seeking among us what you should actually seek in yourselves.

On the other hand, why was Electoral Reform included in the European agenda?

It is the first time in the history of the European integration when a country is asked to deliver on something related to Electoral Reform. This has never happened before. This is not part of the integration issues and no country has been previously asked by Brussels to finalize the electoral reform. It all happened because of violence and the scandalous pressure and threats, which, as always is the case, led Lulzim Basha’s successful defeat, but also created the channel of e-mails, messages and complaints forwarded to international offices and addresses.

They caused uproar and lifted a balloon into the air just to come back on a beautiful day and say “we demand nothing, but have the Electoral Code unchanged.” So, it turns out that the election administration system is not to be blamed and the system turns out to be a good one. And by wasting so much valuable time, we today have shunned two important issues, namely your demand for open lists, and our insistence for the migrants’ vote.

The third one is their demand, the biometric identification.

This parliament has its records. The media have their archives. Let them recall the statements I have issued long time ago, when I used to call on Lulzim Basha not to waste time by taking the street and instead sit with the majority and finalize the electoral reform so that we would have sufficient time to implement the technology, we agree to introduce in the election process. I used to call on Lulzim not to take the streets because he cannot block the local elections and I invited him to apply a pilot project on the use of the technology in elections, as any reasonable mind and ODIHR recommend when it comes to the technology and based on that pilot project implemented in the local elections we would then be able build complete system by tackling also the problems we may encounter in the next general elections.

What has happened now is that we have agreed, also thanks to Mrs. Hajdari – because she was there and she did it for the sake of the country’s integration, for the sake of the peoples’ interest and I intend to believe everything she says, but indeed she did it along with other representatives – we agreed to give up our request for the depoliticization of the election administration system and the election commissions. This poses no problem of whatsoever to our party, in terms of the political interest.

However, in terms of the national interest and in terms of the state, for me this is a backward movement and a huge waste of time. However, we have agreed on that and you, as I already said during the meeting with your group of lawmakers, should realize it doesn’t work, you should not follow Lulzim Basha’s lead and demand everything as if nobody else exists. You should accommodate the idea that an agreement is in place. Do you agree?

We can discuss how and what, yet there is an agreement in place to fully address the ODIHR recommendations. Of course, lawmaker Myslym Murrizi can appear on TV screens and make a big joke. It is his right to do so, and indeed it is absolutely not an ODIHR recommendation, but quite the opposite of the organization’s recommendation for the election administration to continue being politicized. However, ODIHR has given us the OK. Yet they still fear an election defeat and because of that I am sure they will keep coming up with more extravagant proposals about the Central Election Commission. But, based on the new formula, we have agreed to build a politically independent Central election Commission, just like we have also agreed that this Parliament is the one to vote in the depoliticization of the election body in the next general elections.

But, to the surprise of everyone they say that the formula should not be applied in the next local government elections but in the general elections, which means they still think they will remain in opposition. A vice chair of CEC should oversee the entire process together with an international expert and if the process turns successful it would be great, if not, nobody should complain about it.

Again, they want the new CEC body with a full mandate and not for the next elections only.

They think about the next defeat only and what they should do after losing elections.

However, dragging the process on is not helpful.

The repeated demands and the daily insults they throw do not help at all.

Of course, we have made a choice. I have made a choice so that we are totally available at this point and beyond the fact that may sound as a joke, but which is actually true, we will help them overcome the fear of entering the elections. We will let them be granted anything they want. But I will tell them today that we are not the notaries of their caprices and the deadlines they set. And let’s refrain from throwing insults and abuse words today, refrain from issuing statements and accusations and threats against the Socialist Party, because we have taught them the lesson consistently and we will keep doing it again, but, at this point, we want them not disturb us, as we have backtracked and withdrawn more than anyone in our party base could have expected as they cannot understand why the election administration is not depoliticized. Enough with that! Stop!

Meanwhile, Mrs. Hajdari, I don’t believe even for a single second that the open list would boost democracy and improve quality, hoping that with the open list system in place young people would march ahead and other traditional parties would suffer defeat. No experience shows something like this. The open lists have of course certain problems, but, to make it clear, they are not taboo to me.

It is absolutely not true that the open lists would make a party leader a man like everybody else as he would be denied the opportunity to draft the MP candidate lists, whereas the closed lists system is “the bunker built by the party chairman.” This is not true! It is completely untrue, because the leadership responsibility is there in any event, be either in the case of closed lists or open lists. The list’s content is the responsibility of the party’s leadership.

First of all, if you are a member of the parliament today this is because of the closed lists and not because of the opened candidate lists.

The gender equality quota is the result of the closed lists and not the opened ones.

The parliament’s tremendous transformation in terms of its substance, quite the contrary of many claims, and the gender representation in particular is a result of the closed lists.

However, the opened lists are not taboo to me.

Do you want to discuss the issue of the open lists? Of course we can, yet you can neither impose your will, nor can you threaten us, claiming this is impossible here and there, that it is impossible to vote here and stuff like that. Don’t become like the ones who abandoned the parliament, because by resorting to threats and blackmailing you just tempting SP to show how small you and the others outside this parliament are. Don’t tease us.

It is time to set an example for everyone, primarily for ourselves, to show that we Albanians and the political representatives are able to reach a solution in Albanian and not in English.

On the other hand, I want to tell the non-parliamentary opposition and their members, who appear on TV claiming that parliament is controlled by Edi Rama and Taulant Balla, that I am inclined to respect you and those who have abandoned the parliament. No matter what they say, the reason I came to meet and discuss with you is this respect.

Of course, there are different types and characters in this hall, but when I say that personally I don’t see any difference this doesn’t mean that some Harvard-laureate people have left parliament to be replaced by some labourers. This is absolutely not the case! I don’t see any difference, especially given that there are some lawmakers like Valter and anyone else who remind me of the DP leader, as they play the same old tune the non-parliamentary opposition is playing.

To conclude, I would like to state that we haven’t forgotten the Diaspora vote issue! I am very sorry that journalists and political commentators have reached the point of speculating about deceptions.

Indeed, it is all about an entire system that would take time, but this issue has not been left into oblivion. The open list issue is not taboo, but when it comes to the pre-electoral coalition, don’t urge me to speak up and I would illustrate this pre-election coalition talk through the example of a lawmaker that I am not going to name, but he is the most significant product of the reason why the coalitions are not a democratic unity in electoral program.

He is a lawmaker who hasn’t even cast a vote for himself and he is the first and the last in the history of the planet who hasn’t voted for himself. Yet, he is now a lawmaker from the DP candidates list, although he campaigned for me and the Socialist Party. I am open for a referendum on the coalitions.

The last thing I have to say is that Mrs. Hajdari accused me of a dual dictatorship “I have built” together with Lulzim Basha. I would accept being portrayed as a dictator for various reasons, which are of course not true, but do you really think I am establishing dictatorship together with Lulzim? I think quite the opposite could be true. It would have been a significant democratic development. And I really meant it and I take it very seriously and have no doubt that Albania has not been threatened, is not threatened and won’t be threatened by dictatorship, neither because of closed lists, nor because of the open ones, neither because of pre-election coalitions nor without coalitions, not dictatorship will be ever established in Albania.

As far as this process is concerned, I would say that we must conclude the agreement. In my view you have made a mistake by deciding to abandon the Political Council. The agreement is an agreement and we will respect it. What do you want us to discuss about and reach a consensus? The extra-parliamentary opposition cannot impose the parliament’s agenda and the topics up for discussion here in parliament.

I would like to appeal to Lulzim Basha and Petrit Vasili today to stop issuing derogatory statements and abuse words, and stop issuing threats. I would invite them not to order all kinds of jobless people to take up the job of professional revellers and take the floor at the party’s headquarters to assault Socialist party.

Stop doing it! Don’t tease us and don’t tempt us, because, for God’s sake, that agreement is of course an agreement that has certainly created positive conditions in relation to the climate and of course in relation to the partners, but personally I do not think that it represents a reform. The accord is merely a major setback we all on this side of the hall have been aware and we have done so just for a reason, as Mrs. Hajdari claims, in view of the fact that Albania doesn’t become a topic of coffee talks all over Europe, but there is just a fine line between the finalization and termination of the agreement on Electoral Reform. The agreement implementation is hanging by a thread and it is Lulzim Basha and Petrit Vasili and everyone else the ones who should show utmost care for this fine line not to be broken, because I owe them nothing to level daily accusations at a time when, no matter whether I like it or not personally, it is a fact that the overwhelming majority of Albanians dislike that agreement and they do not back the closed lists.

Thank you!