Prime Minister Edi Rama held a meeting today with the employees of the Municipality of Tirana in Skanderbeg Square, during which a documentary on the transformation of Tirana over the years was also shown.
“I am here to tell all of you that, until the matter of the Mayor’s position is resolved, in one way or another, my attention to Tirana, to the municipality, to your problems and work will remain uninterrupted,” said Prime Minister Rama in his speech.
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Prime Minister Edi Rama:
Dear respected employees of the Municipality of Tirana, I asked for this meeting with all of you because during these days I have seen among you, as well as among many others, people who are affected, hurt, disappointed, and desperate.
Some of you even went to the Special Court to protest the day the Mayor of Tirana was sent to jail without trial. I don’t want to judge them harshly; on the contrary, I understand their emotion, but it was a mistake, no matter how innocent it may be, that should not be repeated again, neither by you nor by anyone who works for the Albanian state, in any institution. Each one of you represents a large team, a key institution of this country, an autonomous power that, in no way, should interfere with the institution of another independent power, such as the judiciary.
But just as we transformed Tirana from a hell on earth into a European city with vision, courage, and great efforts, we have decided to transform justice in Albania as well. And like us, who make mistakes in our duties, those who work more make more mistakes than those who don’t know what work is. And the new justice bodies cannot be infallible.
When in 2000 I entered the municipality and there were only 78 neon lights still working on its streets, imagine for a moment, you who are younger here, imagine it and without any shame they say: “You are all the same, here it has gone from bad to worse.” 78 neon lights, exactly, no more. And from the endless power outages and the lanterns people left in windows, Tirana at night looked like a cemetery, a city of mural tombs.
-To close this parenthesis, it is not my place to say whether Mayor Erion Veliaj is innocent or guilty, and regardless of what we think here, my burden is to stand by my opinion in this case as well, and let justice resolve this dilemma, fully supporting the independence of the justice bodies. Meanwhile, your shared burden is that the machinery of the Municipality of Tirana must not stop for even a minute, but it must continue to operate 24 hours in all directions. I am here to tell all of you that, until the matter of the Mayor’s position is resolved, in one way or another, my attention to Tirana, to the municipality, to the problems and needs of your work will remain uninterrupted.
I hope and still want to believe that, beyond what is thought about his guilt, the justice bodies will give the Mayor of Tirana the most basic right to a dignified trial, putting an end to the brutal practice of shackling mayors and public servants in office without trial, when they have neither been caught, nor pose any flight risk, nor do they have any evidence.
I know the benefits that the municipality received when, with Erion’s proposal, the tax was increased in 2016. It started in 2016, tenfold, not 900 thousand, but 9 million euros, while in 2024, 157 times more have been collected, meaning 146 million euros just from construction taxes. And to those who say, “We don’t want towers, we don’t want concrete, we don’t want buildings,” I ask: Do you want roads? Do you want new blocks? Do you want kindergartens? Do you want nurseries? Do you want schools? Do you want bike lanes? Do you want buses, where pensioners now travel for free? Do you want a student card? Do you want free food for children in junior high-schools? Do you want these? With what will we pay for that?
And this is how it works when the collected taxes are used for the right policies, and citizens and the city, as a shared property, receive back what is theirs from the development of private properties.
Let everyone learn this, let everyone who needs to know it learn it well before opening their mouth and speaking about building permits, especially those who should enforce the law or should follow the implementation of the law. Building permits are not privileges, building permits are not indulgences, building permits are not favors granted by the mayor, building permits are development rights of both owners and investors together. And anyone, anywhere, who accuses of bribery in issuing building permits without evidence, simply either has done it themselves or would do it themselves if they had the opportunity.
When I came to the municipality, listen to this—it’s beautiful—I wanted to introduce central heating in schools, but at that time schools were under the government’s responsibility, and the Minister of Education at the time said no. “We have classrooms,” he said, “with many students, with many shifts, and they can warm themselves with stoves and with each other’s breath.” And speaking about schools, I want to make a public appeal today to anyone who accepts the challenge.
On the other hand, find me a new school built in the last decade, wherever you want, Tirana, Durrës, anywhere, that is not the same as schools in Europe. This is the difference between our two worlds, and this is also the difference between those who fight for a cause, for a mission. Because Tirana is a mission. Albania is a mission.
“Adopt a nursery” was a program very similar to “Adopt a segment of Lana” or “Adopt a sidewalk and plant trees.” We planted 55 thousand trees and decorative shrubs in Tirana until 2011. I believe that about 80% of them were done with corruption—by asking companies, by asking construction firms, by asking banks. Just as I told you before.
“Adopt a nursery’’ project has made it possible for many nurseries in Tirana to be built without taxpayer money and to be made by companies, made by businesses. There are many things to be said, but I will not go further into these, because I want to close my speech by saying that in 2022, Tirana became the ‘European Youth Capital’. And I asked you to say this because, even though we still have work to do until then, we have projects to implement, we have battles to win, because meanwhile the city is growing, it is becoming more demanding, it is becoming more impatient to reach the peak of Albania in 2030, where Albania will not only gain the fragrance but also the seal of Europe, of the Balkans, and Tirana will be proud as its capital.
And you know, I have never said this before, but I was thrown into this war by the rain and mud of a forgotten, difficult place. When I came back from France to bury my father and we returned home from the burial, it felt like we were coming back from a war, with the mud up to our knees. And that’s why I could not resist the temptation to say yes to Fatos Nano’s long-time call to join the government, a call I had never even considered until then. Then, the path of my political life started, but I believe more in the fate written for me, which brought me to the head of the Municipality of Tirana, exactly when all the mud, and all the dust of the natural state of a freedom without a state, without law, without control, etc.
And when I look today at those trees planted back then, which have grown on the main streets of the Tirana of that time, I say that even for that, it would have been worth it, the stones would have been worth it, the mud I ate back then would have been worth it. Even the planting of those trees in that investigative show you saw on TV, believe it or not, they called it money laundering of drug money, tree by tree, with the red plums being money laundering from drugs.
Imagine how many years this habit has persisted, but today, with much more to see, Tirana is for me the proof that just like this endless battle against all kinds of scum and all sorts of filth from all sides, from those scum and that filth that did not let this country raise its head, not even when it raised the flag of independence, which has never been separated from this country since 1912, today it has turned into a European city, the Kandahar of the year 2000.
And just like that battle, the endless battle against the filth of a politically and media-wise swamp, and a sea of prejudices against Albania and Albanians, will turn Albania into the new state of the European Union by 2030, and this of mine is a battle with history, and it is a battle for history, and this is a moment when the stars of Albania have lined up in the right way.
Albania’s membership in the European Union goes through Tirana, which is the locomotive of historical transformation that must continue with you at the forefront, from the team of deputy mayors and deputy mayor here, to the gardeners, the street cleaners, the municipal police, and all the other employees of Tirana. These months, the Municipality of Tirana must wake up earlier than it used to and sleep later than it used to when it was accustomed to me, and then retrained.
Tirana has elections to hold on May 11, but the Municipality of Tirana has important visitors to welcome on May 16. So, everything must shine, and each one of you must give your best. I will be here with you and for you, with Tirana for all of Albania. Day and night, with my head held high, with my mind focused, with my heart in the right place, and together with every Albanian, man and woman, who doesn’t just carry the flag for the stadium, but carries it in their heart, in their mind, and in the light of their eyes, from Tirana and all its roots, all the way to Albania, whose eyes are on Tirana.
What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. The best days are ahead!
