Press conference released today by Prime Minister Edi Rama:
-Mr. Prime Minister, today it was announced that one of the ministers will not be part of the Government anymore. You know that in European governments it happens very often that the cabinet is reformed. Do you think this will happen also with your government in the future?
Actually, in serious countries reformation does not happen very often. And there has been not any single second, during these 300 days that I have thought of reforming the government. On the contrary, I can honestly tell you that I feel sorry that, due to lack of time, I never could express to the ministers of the government of the “Alliance for European Albania” my gratitude for their total dedication, and let their now that it was thanks to the contribution of each and every one of them that we could achieve all 300-day objectives in every sector.
-Yesterday, the Parliament concluded its last session by voting the territorial reform which was approved without the votes of the opposition. Are you determined to do in September the Reform in Justice together with the opposition?
To me it is otherwise. The reform passed without the votes of the Democratic Party, but not without the votes of the opposition. Because, the Democratic Party is without any doubt the biggest opposition in the country, but it does not own the monopoly of the opposition. Yesterday, representatives of the second biggest party of the opposition discussed and voted the reform. While feeling very sorry for the Democratic Party, I want to thank those representatives for their constructive approach to this process that was successfully concluded only yesterday, in the last session of the parliament. It is not that we could not do the reform before, but precisely because we waited for the Democratic Party until the very last second. On the other hand, the limits of our waiting are our objectives. We will not affect our objectives only to wait. We will do anything to listen while on the right track towards the objective, but it is us who will lead. We were voted to lead and not to wait.
-Mister Prime Minister, does the majority feel more powerful with the 5 votes of the Party for Justice, Integration and Unity? Will these votes support also other similar reforms?
I do not measure the power of the “Alliance for European Albania” with the figures in Parliament, but I measure it based on the 1 million votes that gave the “Alliance for European Albania” the right to govern and the privilege to serve. This means that, as long as we will achieve the objectives in view of the mandate we received on June 23rd of last year, this is not a majority with 84, 85, 88 or I don’t know how many votes, but it is a majority with at least 1 million votes.
–Yesterday you made the reform, but it seemed there was a hard collision with one of the allies with whom you started the 300-day journey, the Party for Human Rights Union. They declared that if their requests wouldn’t have been considered, they would leave the coalition. Have you received any communication on this and would you feel sorry if Mr. Dule left your coalition?
Secondly, one day before the law on the High Council of Justices passed with 84 votes. The United States asked to be careful and not to rush with reforms, since they do not need to be done within a night. Will it be the same also with other reforms, and why did you rush with the law on the HCJ?
First of all, Vangjel Dule did not become a friend of mine within the coalition of the government. We have been friends even before, regardless of the coalition he was in, and he will always be my friend regardless of the collation he will be. Of course, I would have felt sorry if an historical reform for which every Albanian citizen should feel good, not only Albanian citizens of Albanian nationality but also Albanian citizens with Greek nationality, had become a reason to leave the coalition. Because in the best of cases, it would mean lack of objectivity in assessing a reform that will change Albania forever. On the other hand, we are of course a coalition, but we are not barracks. Members of the coalition have different views that not always correspond to each-other, and in this case our views did not correspond because to us it has been, it is and it always be clear that Himara is not an issue more than Tropoja, Dibra, Shkodra, Durrësi, Tirana, Elbasani, Korça and all other municipalities of Albania are. At this point there is nothing more to add. Meanwhile, with yesterday’s reform, Albania is giving an excellent example to all neighbors as a European country in Europe. Because it guarantees in an absolutely generous and farsighted way an absolutely special treatment for the minorities. The corpus of the local government in Albania is now made of 61 municipalities. But let us not forget that actually there are 58 municipalities created on the basis of criteria of the functional area, and another 3, those of Finiq, Dropull and Pustec, were created on a single criterion excluded from the functional areas, which is our awareness to humbly respect the freedom and the right of every Albanian citizen with a different nationality.
As for the decision taken yesterday by the Parliament of Albania to intervene in order to clearly distance itself from a forum which is the heart of the big problem that Albania has in justice, we did the right thing on the right time and with the same determination to move forward. We shall not forget at any moment that we were voted to radically transform Albania. And when we give account to the electing Albanian people on the mandate received on June 23rd, we will not have any alibi and any chance to justify ourselves or to hide ourselves behind someone else. We stand face to face with the Albanian people and give account for everything to them.
–Mister Prime Minister, could you tell us how did you convince the so called “the group of rebels” to vote for the laws with a quality majority? Do you think that negotiation with them will somehow increase pressure of the parliamentary group with different requests to you in the future?
This was “ABC”’s A.B.C., but it was not the A.B.C. of how the parliamentary group of the Socialist Party works, how the government works or how I work. There has been no negotiation, with anybody, and every MP did their job.
-Mister Prime Minister, the opposition and former PM defined on Facebook the new territorial division as an electoral map. Is this true and how can this affect the coming elections, if the opposition does not take part in these elections?
I am not a follower of former PM Facebook page. There is a strong reason for this: I do not have time to waste. It is a wasted time to deal with former PM. People decided his place and role as protagonist on Facebook, among billion of other protagonists and nothing more.
-Mister Prime Minister, please allow me a personal question. In addition to thanking you, I would like to congratulate you on the birth of your son. People show interest on his health conditions and on the emotion you shared only on social blogs.
To congratulate me, because there is a big age gap to thank me, also he is very handsome so let’s see if you will have a boy or a girl, and who knows what time brings, maybe one day you will thank me.
For now it is me who should thank all you for the endless wishes I received on such a special event in my life, in our family life. And above all, I especially thank Linda for giving birth to Zaho. Since, in the end I gave only a small contribution, while it was Linda who gave the greatest contribution.
Thank you!
