Address by Prime Minister Edi Rama at today’s parliamentary session:
I find it appropriate to recap on the Dutch parliament’s decision, but looking at it from the background of an absurd celebration that took place right in the opposition’s yard in Tirana following that decision. A celebration that is both insulting and – I believe I am not exaggerating it at all – despicable and contemptuous of this country’s ordinary citizens given that the decision was published on the TV and digital channels as if it marked the end of the visa-free travel for Albanians, while it is just and completely a political decision in the framework of an electoral process in a country like the Netherlands, where, there is no longer a secret, a continued anti-EU, anti-enlargement, anti-immigration and anti-Albanian policy is rising intensively.
Certain political parties have picked the Albanian nationals to make them a scapegoat for the aggressive isolationist rhetoric in relation to developments beyond the Netherlands’ borders in the European Union and the aggressive rhetoric against the European enlargement policy.
It is a parliamentary procedure which has no direct implication of whatsoever for the free travel of Albanian citizens and, to explain it in more concrete terms, everyone should bear in mind that a series of objective criteria, which none coincides with the reality of the Albanian factor of Netherlands, must be met for the revocation of the visa-free travel.
And the beauty of all this is that the Dutch Minister of Justice and Security, who attended the parliamentary session, in his remarks at the parliament said exactly this; not a single criterion has been violated in order to address this matter by a parliament’s decision.
Dutch Minister of Justice and Security, who visited Albania few days ago, praised in a very positive tone the progress in cooperation between the two countries to tackle these issues, which would otherwise constitute an objective reason for considering the Dutch parliament’s decision.
First, a steady increase in illegal emigration in a country, or in the respective EU member state, should be observed, Indeed, facts show a decline in and not an increase, not alone a double increase in the illegal emigration.
Second, the number of asylum seekers in the respective EU member state from the country of origin should double. Not only is there no double increase of Albanian asylum seekers in the Netherlands, but there is a decline in their number.
Third, a lack of readiness for cooperation among countries regarding the repatriation of irregular emigrants pursuant to the legislation and international conventions. The cooperation has not declined. Instead such cooperation has strengthened as the Dutch authorities have already noted and emphasized by the Dutch Justice and Security Minister during his most recent visit to our country.
Fourth, the country in review and to which the visa-free movement mechanism is supposed to be suspended should pose a threat to the national security of the country that launches this procedure.
Fifth, significant regress in implementation of technical criteria on the visa-free travel should be observed and such technical criteria are systematically assessed by the European Commission, which, in its last December report, said that Albania meets the 100% visa-free criteria.
Having said all of these, the Dutch government has not and has given no sign that it intends to take the step, which based on the parliament’s decision as part of an electoral campaign, with such topics and the Albanian nationals having been made into a kind of cannon fodder for political parties, which are seeking to drum up support and votes by violating the dignity of Albanian nationals and then address to the European Commission. Then, the European Commission, in the case of a request forwarded by the respective government – Dutch government in this case – examines the criteria I just mentioned and which are objective and non-objective criteria. They are technical and not political criteria. They are based on facts and figures and not on rhetoric and on the policy of spreading fear among the population for the so-called danger from the foreigners, emigrants or the Albanians who are entering a country where there are speculations over the so-called Albanian crime and where there is a simple figure.
Albanians account for only 0.2% of the total of the number of individuals with crime records or felony convictions in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. They account just for 0.2% of a total prison population of that country.
This doesn’t downplay the fact that there are criminal groups operating in that country, yet it can’t shadow the fact that we have strengthened and are continuously strengthening the intergovernmental cooperation, which has been praised by the Dutch authorities.
If the European Commission hypothetically that the objective criteria, namely the illegal immigration, the number of asylum seekers from Albania have doubled, the cooperation on repatriation of illegal emigrants has declined and Albania poses a threat to the Netherlands and other criteria are different from what they really are, then the European Commission makes no decision, but forwards the case to the European Council. The European Council is the forum where all EU member states are represented and where the consensus of all EU member states is needed to take the procedure further forward and the European Council’s regulation contains a specific article, stipulating that it is the qualified majority of the European Council members to veto the consensus if there is a reaction from a certain country. And in all this imaginary scenario, if the qualified majority is guaranteed – something that has never been used in the history of the European Council to accept such a procedure –the decision is then sent to the European Parliament. In other words, it is a such a procedure that it would be enough to look at the process to understand that what has happened is the mobilization of some political parties with a vocation explicitly running counter to the values and principles that normal pro-European parties defend and everything has happened in the context of an electoral campaign, but also being fully aware that this is all a political show with an electoral background.
This is an internal game and dynamics that has determined a decision for internal interests, but that in no way affects the free movement of Albanian citizens. But this is not the worst part.
We are now already used to the Europe we live in. We are now used to the way how the member states work and how the EU enlargement policy based on the vision of a full and complete Europe is being increasingly rejected by the nationalist forces. But what is hard to swallow is the Tirana celebration by those who, because of being overwhelmed of hatred, have lost their reason. Due to their despair, they have lost the points of reference to certain values which the Albanian political establishment has institutively preserved, even on its worst days, when it came to such major and sensitive topics like the country’s European integration process. A loathsome celebration to lift and aim the gun muzzle in order to launch whole firecrackers and projectiles against the homes of Albanians trying to transform that procedure and decision into another argument of an internal and desperate political battle here in Tirana, after being badly degraded in the form of a reaction by MPs, who refused to represent citizens and are now trying to set on fire, not the institutions, but the country’s future, hopes and perspective. Setting your own homeland on fire is unforgivable and hard to swallow. How can an Albanian just like us, after all we are all Albanians, choose to become the mouthpiece of those who have made their compatriots, the Albanian citizens, into a scapegoat and the black sheep by deliberately stigmatizing them just to drum up support from their electorate and uninformed and angry people? How can these two things come together? How is it possible that certain Albanian political parties lose their dignity to the point of extinction and these Albanian political parties use the anti-Albanians, those who stigmatize Albania as a country of criminals, as a nation of criminals and speak about ethnic crime at a time when crime is colourless and criminals are always criminals in any country. This is really disgusting.
Why do they do that?!
How can they go that far?!
How is it possible that the blind struggle for power takes a political party, or several political parties, to this point?!
How is it possible that the political struggle and rhetoric degrades so badly, with those who abandoned their duty are now becoming the enthusiastic spokesmen for those who don’t want to hear Albania’s name.
How is it possible that the alibies of those politicians and political forces gain foothold here in our country and find their spokespersons here, while this day should have been instead the day of Albanian politics, where, apart from everything that divides us, we must all be united around Albania and the conviction that Albania’s dignity cannot be negotiated in the eyes of foreigners.
We live in a system with disagreement being in its very essence. We have chosen such a system. It is not a system of consensus and agreement on everything. It is a system with disaccord being the basis of coexistence. However, the quality of coexistence depends on the way how we don’t disagree, on the quality of functioning of all social mechanisms, because one may not agree on everything, yet it is something else when the discordance is a reason to stir debate, motivate alternatives and battles, no matter how tough, and it all ends with the judgment of the people. But it is completely something else when this discordance is translated into daily and pervading calls for fire, riots, conflict, extinction and death. These are two completely different things. Moreover, it is time to appeal to very friendly and sincerely appeal to all of those who dislike this government for 1001 reasons, who have and has 1001 reasons not to vote this government, and tell them following the crowd and supporting these degraded political parties that embrace anyone, who is willing to give a kick Albania out of a process that doesn’t belong to the Socialist Party, but to the Albanians themselves, directly affects and hurts Albanians themselves.
I have constantly stated and I would like to reiterate it: they surely cannot harm the government, but ordinary Albanians and this is the least they can do.
They can’t change the government by throwing firecrackers, projectiles and by singing the national anthem out of tune.
They can’t change the government by issuing threats, blackmails and by blocking and hindering the country.
They can’t change the majority in this parliament, because it is merely impossible for them even if they succeed in entering the parliament premises by singing patriotic songs.
Parliament is an expression of the sovereign people’s will through their vote on 140 representatives to represent them.
However, although they can do no harm to the government, they can still harm a lot the economy, Albania on its path to development, and not to Albania as an abstract notion, but Albanians with flesh and blood, people who are parents, sons and daughters, working people, people who are looking for a job, who run a business and so on and so forth.
Everyone is affected, but those who apart from being political tourists, they close down the municipality doors, get on buses and arrive here with firecrackers and flares on hands. They are political tourists. Everyone else is harmed. It is important that everyone understands this doesn’t depend on us. We have tried to do whatever depends on us and we will try to do so also in the aspect of creating room and providing more guarantees to everyone claiming for more guarantee. However, this parliament comes after the most uncontested elections in the history of the Albanian parliament. Not a single complaint has been filed with none of the 5500 election commissions in 2017 general polls. Not a single one!
For the first time in history of Albania’s pluralism, the Electoral College has handled not a single electoral complaint. It is the first time when elections are contested one year and a half later. Why?! Just for a simple reason. Because new elections are nearing.
The new elections are very near and the result will be the same. They will lose elections because they have nothing to offer people, but accusations, slanders, firecrackers, blackmails, and threats. What else?! Nothing else!
There is now another offer, which at some point might have drawn fire and opened the eyes of those generally speaking blind supporters, who believe that government and parliament could be ousted and early elections will be held and they now represent the majority. That majority, which according to their estimates is around 170 000 people protesting along the boulevard, would now free Albania and seize power.
One should be totally willing to be driven out of mind and blindly follow someone in order to believe such nonsense. However, we here are in trouble as we have to deal with this kind, the most political degraded kind. The Democratic Party (DP) has always been our rival. DP has a long history of excess, long history of troubled relations with institutions, either when in opposition, or in power. But the decision to relinquish parliamentary mandate that citizens have granted you to represent them in parliament is something new for DP itself and it something that nobody accepts and will never accept.
There is no chance of finding a single Democrat of a single democratic political party in Europe, US and Australia to accept this is something worth talking about.
Yellow vests come out of the house to the street to burn. This is something heavy, but not new, but parliamentarians come out of Parliament on the road to wearing a yellow suit this is something new.
The so-called yellow vests leave homes and take to the streets to burn everything. This is of course something grave, but not new, but seeing MPs walking out of parliament and take to the streets to put on the yellow vest is an unprecedented thing.
The yellow vest is worn by an individual who feels like he is not being ignored and puts the yellow vest on in order to be identified by colour and sets things on fire for others to see how good he is in destructing everything. But when a lawmaker walks out of parliament and puts the yellow vest on claiming that democracy can be consolidated this way, the institutions can be freed and the system takes a fresh quality, this is then the monumental expression of despair crowned by the dead-end reached by a headless, eyeless, earless and heartless political party.
Meanwhile, we have no other options but keep up striving to win our challenges. Our challenge has not and is now how to win the election. We have always and will continue to win elections as long as there is no alternative that would put us in an awkward position or make it difficult for us by gaining the support of an overwhelming majority of people, who have a thousand reasons to criticize us, but have not a single reason to follow the crowd.
Great challenges lie ahead of us also because we need to defend Albania’s position in economy. We need to defend the position in relation to employment growth. It is not us saying this, but the latest World Bank’s report, which confirms that Albania accounts for more than half of the new jobs created in the whole Western Balkan region in 2018.
These are facts!
I have consistently stated that you don’t need to listen to us when citing statistics, but instead you can look into the state’s accounting records and you will find out how many Albanians used to pay social insurance contributions and income tax and how many Albanians receive a salary today if compared to the past. It is as simple as that.
It is pretty simple to defend the position we have earned and further develop the country’s nascent tourism industry, which is finally developing as it should, but which is still fragile and is threatened by all of these latest developments.
Unfortunately, they are seeking to block opening of the accession talks at any costs and are trying to convince Albanian citizens that opening the negotiations depend on the government and the Prime Minister. What depends on the government indeed is that what the European Commission says based on objective criteria and the steps made by each country to address key priorities before the country can open the membership negotiations. The government and the Prime Minister can do so little to change the minds of those who voted to suspend the visa-free regime with Albania based on a political position that has nothing to do with our political position and has nothing to do with our position as a country regarding the membership negotiations.
Those who launched such procedures are individuals and political forces that have built their success and base their representation in the parliament of their country on how good they are to give their voters the creeps from the Albanians.
Likewise, the government and the Prime Minister can do so little to change the trajectory of the internal debate in France, with the leader of a political party there appearing on a TV debate to tell people they don’t know Albanians, but she does. But, as always, politics of that kind needs the Albanians, needs an enemy, a danger, and a threat in order to drum up support from angry and outraged and uninformed people, who have nothing against Albanians, but they are stimulated by fear of the aliens, or they are stimulated by the need to refuse the aliens. However, I can state one thing for sure; we here in this Parliament have all the opportunities to do the right things, together with the ladies and gentlemen who had the courage to make a different choice from the political parties that placed them on the electoral lists.
We are given the opportunity to address all issues in order to improve elections, primarily given the OSCE/ODIHR recommendations, on which the European Council has called on us to react. Certainly we have also the opportunity to discuss other topics too, if there is a discordance on the system.
We don’t agree, but the way we don’t agree doesn’t mean that we will not provide other party the opportunity to express its opinion, to express what it wants and provide its arguments. We are open to discuss without necessarily agreeing on everything, but of course being convinced that by doing so we will be able to communicate and set another standard. We have the opportunity to address the Criminal Code by including new measures to ensure the vote integrity and prevent vote-buying and we can definitely do this. We will prepare our proposals. Other parties here can table their proposals too and we can tighten the reins, so to say, of those who are somehow perpetrators of this illegal activity during the election campaign, but, on the other hand, you should know that over the past weeks the Italian parliament has been discussing the vote-buying phenomenon in the neighbouring country too. It is exactly the Italian parliament, the world’s fifth largest economy and one of the founding countries of the European Union that is discussing today the vote-buying phenomenon. Italian MPs have been convicted on charges of having cooperated with the Mafia to buy votes, however nobody has claimed that since a political force or a lawmaker has been tried by the Italian court that has found that he has received a certain number of votes as a gift from the mafia in a certain constituency then the elections in that area are invalid or in the entire country are invalid. This is unimaginable, moreover given the fact that we are facing merely allegations and slanders and not facts and evidence, and these are matters that justice has to deal with. Meanwhile, we in the parliament should address these issues by resorting to every means available to us and the Criminal Code is an instrument created for this purpose. At the meantime, we will soon introduce the new anti-defamation legislation to regulate the entire activity of the web-based media. It is no longer possible for us to continue being a cannon fodder for everyone who wishes to slander and invent stories and enter right into our own homes and “mutilate” everyone in the name of freedom. We will introduce the legislation very soon as we have already promised and we have been closely working with the OSCE on that. We will forward to parliament a draft agreed with the OSCE and ask for stiffer penalties on those who have turned the media into mud, making it impossible for the public opinion to distinguish amid the media informing the public and media that slanders. In this aspect, we are totally ready to establish the needed cooperation and we are also ready to communicate and discuss also with those who are currently fond of the firecrackers. We are ready to reach out to them and they have their own seat in the Electoral Reform Commission, being granted a special observer status. We can do nothing else. There is a parliamentary Democratic Party and another Democratic Party that has taken to the streets.
To conclude, I would like to reiterate that it is unjustifiable, disgraceful and hard to swallow that celebrations took place in Tirana by those who are found of firecrackers after the Dutch parliament decision, which is a decision against the Albanians, against dignity of every Albanian and, I reiterate, it is not necessary at all to listen to what I am saying, but it would suffice to listen what the Dutch Minister of Justice and Security said in that parliament session, stating that it is impossible to take a procedure on reintroducing the visa regime for Albanian nationals forward. Whoever dreams to take office after this decision, their dream will never come true. We will do things increasingly better and together try for the best and overcome the gaps of the past.
Thank you very much!
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Response to the DP MP Rudina Hajdari:
Mrs. Hajdari, I am sorry, but I have a problem with me having been quoted wrongly.
I didn’t say that the Democratic Party was to blame for the Dutch parliament’s decision. I said something else; that it is shameful that the Democratic Party that has taken the streets and its coalition partner the Socialist Movement for Integration celebrated an anti-Albanian decision. I also explained why the decision made by the Dutch parliament is just and merely part of the electoral campaign in the Netherlands and why Albania has no reason to worry about such a decision, which is subject to a procedure that contains objective criteria.
There are five objective criteria in order to review the visa-free travel regime in a country. All these criteria should be met so that the procedure can be taken forward and go through all the instances I already mentioned.
Has the illegal immigration in the Netherlands registered a two-fold increase?
No.
Has the number of the Albanian asylum seekers in the Netherlands doubled? No.
Has Albania failed to cooperate with the Netherlands on repatriation of the Albanian illegal emigrants? No.
Does Albania pose a threat to the Netherlands’ national security? No.
Has the European Commission found out any deficiency in Albania’s efforts to implement the criteria the country should regularly fulfil in order for the visa-free regime to remain in place? No, on the contrary. These are the five main criteria.
(Dutch) parliament may make whatever decision it wants to make. I told you, the decision has been initiated by certain political parties that have turned Albanian nationals into their cannon fodders for purely electoral purposes. The decision has also been backed by others in order to prevent being lambasted as people who want to blow up the Netherlands. That’s all. I also said that the Dutch Minister of Justice and Security has clearly stated during that parliament’s session that the procedure meets no conditions in order to take it forward and I reiterated that the process goes through a number of procedures that practically make this decision exactly what it is; a political decision for political and electoral purposes at the height of a campaign. The country has recently held the regional elections and the extremist parties have emerged stronger and they are to face fresh elections for the European Parliament. I have already read claims suggesting that “he or she are someone’s friends,” but I don’t want to comment on that, although I don’t doubt that the Democratic Party might have though a little contribution to this process, because they spare no opportunity to denigrate Albania, their own country, whenever meeting anyone during their trips to Europe. Fortunately, the integration process goes through objective criteria. We in the government would be and we will be responsible should the European Commission says we have failed to meet our obligations. If the European Commission assesses facts, decides on factual data and not on electoral mood of a certain member state and again recommends unconditional opening of membership negotiations, just like Commissioner Hahn hinted, we have done our homework. I am sympathizer of your opinion that we should convince Netherlands. But this an ambition beyond my imagination on how to convince those who do not care at all about the objective criteria for a procedure and initiate a process in their parliament just for their narrow political interests. As for this theory that we should invest more in health and education system in order to make sure that Albanians do not leave the country, I would like to ask you: “Do you know Mrs. Hajdari how many Croatians have applied for a job in Germany last year? As many as 100 000 Croatians. The Croatians are EU members. It is of course most important and serious thing for us to discuss and do whatever it takes to increasingly improve conditions in this country, but whoever thinks that we can discover the magic key that no country has found to date in order to prevent people from trying their own selves and chasing their dreams in more developed countries, then he is either a naïve, or is playing politics. Meanwhile, the truth is that we are dealt a blow from the fact that being non-EU member we are not part of the free labour market and have no access to this market just like the Croatians, Slovenians, Poles or Hungarians have.
We don’t have access to the labour market and the reason why Albanians seek asylum, although they do not qualify for asylum or refugee status because they face no persecution and Albania is not at war, but they ask for a job, which the Croatians are not forced to do so. They just gen on the car in Zagreb and they drive all way to Berlin, or elsewhere and they just register there simply because they are part of the free labour market. So we need to distinguish among propaganda and true facts. Albanians have certainly left the country and have returned back home. They keep leaving and returning home as well. We no longer live in Albania of Enver Hoxha’s era, when everyone was isolated and nobody could travel abroad. On the contrary, Albania is a country that has been granted the right to move freely, where opportunities for various experiences are provided, where opportunities to work and to earn more are granted. What we oppose and what we deem wrong is the illegal asylum seeking. By the way, data show that number of illegal asylum seekers has fallen. The Netherlands has no problem at all with the so-called illegal Albanian asylum seekers. The only country we have established intensive cooperation to curb number of asylum seekers is France, a country with the most liberal system of granting asylum. But we can’t provide unlimited opportunities and the theory that the Albanian citizens discovered the world exactly when the Socialist Party seized power is something that even those who say it cannot believe. If we were to refer to concrete figure and statistics the reality is quite different.
Of course we should do more and do whatever it takes to earn our position even in the countries where our position is weaker, but not because of us.
Could you please tell us what on earth the European election in France have to do with the Albanians? Why should the fate of European elections in France should be determined by the France’s position towards us?! For whose reason? Because of Albania’s public administration or crime and corruption in Albania? No, not at all. But just because of the internal dynamics there as Albanians, being outside of the EU bloc and knocking on the EU’s doors, they are portrayed as the scarecrow, just like Bulgarians, Romanians and others were described previously. Have you come across the propaganda that was mounted when Bulgaria was seeking to enter this process? “We can’t accept them – the Dutch used to say – because an attempt on Pope had taken place in that country.” Just imagine ! So, this is the Europe we live in. These are the conditions. It is not us the ones to determine the conditions. What we can only do is to do our homework.
Do we enjoy a better or a worse position than before? There is no need to discuss this. To find out about this we will refer to those who monitor us. We will refer to the European Commission. The European Commission gave an unconditional recommendation last year. Same recommendation will be made this year and one should not forget that European Commission has never made an unconditional recommendation previously. What does this mean then? Are we in a more favourable or a less favourable position? What does this mean given that the number of foreign arrivals has doubled? Has our country a better or a worse image? Why six million tourists chose to come to Albania? Do they come here to be killed, kidnaped by the “mafia” or to smuggle drugs? Why do they visit our country?
Why an increasing number of people are coming to invest in Albania’s tourism? What for? To launder the drugs proceeds? Why do you think Marriot, Hyatt and Fairmont hotels choose to invest in Tirana? To launder the drugs money? That’s why we lose nothing and offering a better alternative for the country we live in doesn’t wakens the opposition’s position. Nothing bad would happen. There are 1001 of reasons to criticize and object the government and seek to seize power. There are 1001 of reasons. But I am not going to tell you them, just like I didn’t tell those who were here previously. I can’t tell them. I know them, but you can’t find them out and this is your problem. Instead, you cling to things that Albanians sense no matter how far away from this parliament they are, no matter how much uninformed they are. There are no longer great politicians. The Albanian citizens are the greatest politicians. They discuss politics from dawn to dusk. You can’t lie them. It is impossible. They would understand who is lying them. They sense who is deceiving them. They sense everything. Therefore, I invite you to figure out more other reasons to tell people why you are better and win their votes! This si no problem at all! But let’s not seek justice by doing injustice to this country. Let’s not feel good when denigrating our own country. To say Albania is a country of drugs trafficking and crime, you are not saying something that distinguishes between you and me. Instead, you are just saying something that sounds strange to a foreigners’ ears and they could say “they are all the same.” But this is not true. Albania faces many problems, yet it also has many things for which we have all the reasons to be proud of.
Above all, we can never acknowledge the fact that 2, 5, 40, 200 or 2000 MPs come together and claim that Albanians pose a threat to Europe and cite the term “Albanian ethnic crime.” What does Albanian ethnic crime mean? With whom Albanian criminals cooperate? Do they act alone? How can we accept this? How can we accept that Albanians are portrayed as the black sheep and as people with human tail? Can we accept this? How can one celebrate this? How can a party take pleasure at this, saying: “Justice is being made as visa regime is being reintroduced because of Edvin Kristaq Rama!” How is it possible that human dignity denigrates that far?
We may disagree on 1000 of things, yet we should all agree on one thing alone: We are all Albanians and when Albanians are targeted as an ethnicity, when Albanians are targeted as whole population and nobody distinguishes between a hardworking Albanian who deals with jobs that the local people would never take up and serve best local economy, while Albania is the country where they have implemented more investments than any other country and where their companies feel themselves home here and have never raised any problem or concern over any corruption practice and face no barriers of whatsoever from the Albanian state – and I am talking about big companies like SHELL! They are willing to come and invest in Albania. Albanians work hard in their country. How comes then that Albanians are the threat flooding Netherlands with crime. Where? Did Albanians turn Rotterdam port into an illicit trafficking “hub”?! When did Rotterdam port became an illicit trafficking “hub”? When Albanians were granted the right to travel free to Europe? No, it has happened long ago. And it will continue to remain such a hub.
What we are doing with the Dutch authorities is something they are praising as an excellent job in terms of cooperation, information sharing and preventing illegal activities. Therefore, we say that Dutch Minister of Justice and Security was right when he said that decision is null as it has no impact on the Albanians’ passports and such decision has been made for their electoral purposes. If they have reached the conclusion that Albanians should be made a scare of in order to collect more votes, by saying they would protect people from the scarecrow they themselves invent, this is their policy. I would like you to divide from the Democratic Party that has now taken to the streets.
