The previous government left to OSHEE, namely to KESH back then, the obligation to compensate for damages caused by floods. Through OSHEE, we settled the whole volume of mutual obligations. Which means that all those who were flooded and had obligations to OSHEE, unlike all other customers, had their obligations zeroed. Meanwhile, another part remains, which we have not forgotten, and we are working to solve their problem.

But I want to emphasize this; we have a problem that has now become chronic with the Municipality of Shkodra which is completely non-existent in relation to the problems of its citizens and surprisingly, it is almost the only municipality in Albania, without any left wing or right wing distinction, the capacity of which to prepare documentation and to provide reasons for what it requires doesn’t equal even the most lost municipality prior to 2015. I don’t know what has happened and what is happening to the Municipality of Shkoder, but I can say that every time the Municipality of Shkoder is mentioned, it’s not exaggerate to say: God save the citizens of Shkoder from their municipality!

As for the solidarity package of the holiday season, it is no surprise to me that you consider just a show the largest financial support for pensioners, for families receiving financial allowance or for the disabled persons, who have been considered never before as part of the solidarity relation of the holiday season, or for the 2498 flooded families across Albania, or for the famers who lost their cows due to a deadly epidemics. I’m not surprised.

You consider a show the fact that every pensioner will receive 60 thousand [old] ALL on the eve of the holidays. It is an amount that has never been given before, and which we are able to give not to put on a show, but simply because we are not anymore in the conditions we were three years ago, in a pit that risked to turn into a financial abyss for this country.

We are in the conditions when we can share the first results of the reforms with the people. We did this and today we’ll seal it with the 2017 budget by allocating the largest amount ever allocated within a year in 25 year, 100 million dollars to increase salaries and pensions. We’ll do this in the few coming days for all pensioners in Albania, for whom we are aware that this pension increase is not sufficient for us to feel temporarily safe. Therefore, we feel compelled to give them, through this solidarity package, not only the clear message that we don’t play games with them by indexing inflation like you did when you were in this position, but on the contrary we have put them at the centre of our attention. If we don’t have the opportunity to do as much as we want, one thing is sure, we have the respect expressed not with words but with deeds, openly, by separating what we have achieved from what we have not in this stage of governance.

I have never heard, when you ruled, that you have replaced any animal after a flooding, whereas here we are rightfully proud, not because we have replaced every chicken, every sheep, every cow, and will continue to do this for all those who have their animals registered, but because we don’t try to fool people and pretend we are doing things. This is far more important that the very replacement of every cattle and bird lost due to natural disasters.

You thinks this is a show, and don’t have any problem saying that. Leave it to the judgement of the Albanian pensioners who will receive this year 60 thousand ALL, for the first time in 25 years, whether it is 60 thousand ALL or just a show.

Families benefitting financial allowance, for whom we haven’t done any miracle in this three years, but have just doubled and tripled the financial allowance, will receive this year for the first time in 25 years, 20 thousand ALL at the end of the year. You say this is a show. Let them judge whether 20 thousand ALL is more than the nothing you offered them, or it’s just a show.

The people with disability, whom you turned into the most vocal and present protesters during your government, and who used to protest at the door of the prime ministry, at the doors of ministries, in the avenues, everywhere throughout your ruling, it’s not just that you treated them with a disregard materialized in the ultimate alimony that you gave them, but you never gave them the opportunity to talk directly to you, and you didn’t hear them a single time. At the end of this year they will receive 20 thousand ALL. You say this is a show. I say that it’s them who will judge whether it’s 20 thousand ALL or just a show.

Even the flooded families, about whom you think only when you have to be on TV and wear boots in front of the camera so that you can say “what is the government doing for them?”, for all of them without distinction – as you separate even the flooded people into ours and theirs – will receive as damage compensation from 6.8 million [old] ALL to 110 thousand [old] ALL, according to the damage found and registered.

You say this is a show. Let them judge whether the money allocated to compensate them for the damages is a show. Let those of Bregu i Lumit judge it. For the sake of truth, they weren’t flooded by the rainfall. The rainfall found them already flooded by your policy which allowed everybody to build everywhere, as building means prosperity. It was you who made people build by the riverbeds. I’ve said this many times, there has been no case in the history of Albania, either of our great-great grandfathers, or of the Illyrians, or of the Pleasgians – who were supposed not to have had your knowledge in ruling in the 21^st century – where people would build by the riverbed. You are unique in the history of civilizations, as the people who had an opportunity to lead a community and tell them “go to the riverbeds and build on the river”.

However, we will compensate every penny. And meanwhile, we will tell everybody, we must change this system and each and every one must make sure to be compensated like it happens everywhere in the world, except for the case when disasters exceed means.

Let me give you some minor information on employment because I think that the fact that unemployment results to have a minus 2.5% decrease compared with the third quarter last year, is not something to go unnoticed, and on the other hand, the participation rate in the work force has increased by 2.6%. Just as it cannot go unnoticed that in annual terms, employment in industry has increased by 13.6%, in the services sector by 8.2%, and in the agricultural sector by 7%.

These are significant numbers, although always insufficient for us, for unlike you when you were in government, we are not satisfied with what we do. What we do is to be fully aware of how much we can still do.

The subject today is again the Vetting of judges and prosecutors whom you keep hostage. Since the CEO of your party (DP) translated yesterday the European Council and told the Albanians that based on his translation, the European Council said that “Albania is an African dictatorship without elections”, I want to share with you a statement of the Council for Albania. And if there is somebody who sees or perceives in this statement of the Council for Albania, the slightest connection with the concept of African dictatorship, they are welcome to come up here and denounce it.

The Council welcomes the major steps that Albania has made by adopting in July 2016, unanimously, very important constitutional amendments that paved the way for the launch of a comprehensive and reforming process in the justice system. The member states praised the steady progress made by Albania with regard to the 5 key priorities, progress which is clearly noticed in the European Commission’s positive assessment for the third consecutive year, but also compared with countries in the region that are part of the enlargement package. In a comparative scale, not for us but for the European Commission, the progress made by Albania is the most advanced in the framework of the countries that are part of the enlargement package.

Member countries of the European Union support the European Commission’s recommendation to start negotiations on Albania’s membership, with the understanding that Albania will enforce the Vetting law – they keep saying and repeating this, and you even today don’t have the courage to point at whom released Lulzim Berisha, but go and say that it was the Municipality of Durres. Imagine where you are!

Of course, further progress with the implementation of reforms related to the 5 key priorities is essential not only to sit in the table of negotiations but, as the progress on the path of the already opened negotiations shows, whether of Montenegro or of Serbia, these five priorities accompany each country on their way through membership. They are not conditions; they are criteria that the country should meet, whereas the condition is the Vetting, the law that paves the way for the implementation of the reforms in justice. All the rest is “balderdash”, as Father Gjergj Fishta used to say. It’s the balderdash of your inconsolable compensation, as you have gone crazy in a desperate attempt to throw mud every day, with slander and accusations, hoping that the Albanians will believe you.

The member states require the European Commission to make a new report as soon as Albania is ready to meet this condition. So, the Council will assess when to set a date for the opening of negotiations as soon as the Commission certifies that sufficient progress is made. This means the beginning of the enforcement of the Vetting law, and of course the continuation on the path of a sustainable process with the 5 priorities. This means that Albania is not hostage to the calendar of the European Union; it is hostage to the calendar of the DP, and all rest is desperate attempts to manipulate the public opinion and to avoid facing the truth. The truth with which you cannot find the strength to confront, and which is an imperative to clear the palace of justice of the judges and prosecutors who are today your allies in the long-standing and consistent kidnapping of the justice system.

There is no new conditions for Albania, and the Vetting condition is a condition that has not been imposed to us by the EU, but by you.

I’ve told this to you even when nobody would think that you will come in a row with your cards up and your heads down to vote the constitution reform, for the vetting will be done, it cannot be undone.

You can go on dragging your feet, along with the Vetting for a while yet, but I assure you that the palace of justice will be cleared, for the history of this country demands this, and you cannot halt history.