Prime Minister Edi Rama’s interview with Sky News

– You have seen and heard the rhetoric coming out of the UK about Albanian migrants, talks of invasion, talks of Albanians involved in criminality? How does that make you feel when you hear that type of language?

–Prime Minister Edi Rama: Listen, I must say that in the nowadays politics, sometimes these kind of things can happen. What makes me wonder more is that I never heard an apology, which makes me think that instead of an exaggerated expression of frustration, this was a calculated attack and this is what is the most worrisome.

-Do you feel like Albania needs an apology from the UK?

 – Prime Minister Edi Rama: We don’t need it in the sense that we can live without it. But when you apologize, it’s OK, it happened. When you don’t and when you avoid it, then it means you want something from what you said. So, it means there is a calculation behind it. It means you are really talking to a certain number of voters that want to hear this and you are feeding them with this, because you need their votes, but the consequences of that can be devastating for the people, for our people in Britain, and for Britain itself.  

– You have made clear your view how the UK is handling this. But let’s talk about you. How much blame do you hold for this? You have been the Prime Minister for nine years, yet we are hearing people – every single time you talk with them – saying “they have no future; they have no hope; the country is corrupt and there is nothing for them here, so they have to leave. You are in charge; how much is this responsibility?

–Prime Minister Edi Rama: It is true that you can hear people saying so and it is also true that now it is a period of time when there is a lot of bad influence in general, in the world, because of the war, because of the crisis, because another situation ensued after the pandemic, because, because, because… We know what we should do. We should do everything to improve the situation here and to make it better and better for everyone, but we also know that whatever we do, Albania will not be London, it will not be Paris, and it will not be Berlin.