Public communication of the Prime Minister to announce the extended support package:
Dear friends,
We are all witnessing this war is far from being over. Shkodra’s disturbing case should teach us that any decrease in vigilance, any move outside the circle of the rules acting on the idea that the virus cannot infect me, any haste to return to the long-awaited normality would take us backwards, or worse – God forbid it – lead us to a dead end that so far we all together and in full dignity have avoided.
We are all in trouble. Every family is having troubles. Every small of big enterprise is facing difficulties. The government itself is in trouble. Wars happen not to resolve, but to add more trouble to the difficulties everyone is encountering. In this horrible war against an invisible enemy, nobody has a solution to everything. Nobody has an answer to every dilemma. Nobody knows for sure when it is going to be over. Nowhere. Neither in the most powerful and learned nations of the planet. We Albanians, who have a small country, facing enough difficulties even without this war, cannot and should not forget for a single moment the most obvious thing in this world: The today’s trouble of the troubles we face in common and from which nobody would escape on his or her own, is to protect life in our own families and protect Albania from the humanitarian catastrophe.
Other problems are also important, yet none of them, even combined, are not bigger than the trouble we could have faced and – God forbid it –we may face should the chain of national unity and solidarity fails, after having hampered the invisible enemy to wreak havoc, just like it is doing in Europe and all over the world.
I am worried today; very worried indeed, because I see and I sense it that many among you wrongly think it is over and that we got away with it! “Reopen businesses, because we are dying,” some tell me. “Lift travel ban and open the roads, because we can’t take anymore,” say others. “Release us, because you are not God and Allah,” say many others, who even throw scorns and curse upon me!
The truth is that we have actually entered a very delicate phase, with the greatest danger being us rather than the enemy we are fighting. It is exactly like this. We today pose the greatest potential danger to ourselves! The enemy attack didn’t take us by surprise, failed to make our hospitals be overwhelmed and inundated by wounded people, and, as of today, failed to draw us into the macabre dance of death it succeeded to send even some of the globe’s most powerful nations! While today, the enemy’s last and only chance to bring great calamity upon ourselves stands precisely on the human weakness of everyone among us because of ignorance, negligence, frivolity and impatience that could unwillingly send us into becoming his ally the enemy has been missing to date.
I know, and trust me, not only I do know but also I feel day and night your pain, the pain of the families in most difficulties and hardship that anyone else, I feel the pain of the parents who are unable to bring home the income as they are unable to go to work, the pain of those who have been stuck and stranded across the border and are unable to return back home. I feel the pain of every one of you so deeply, because of the fact I can’t relief it, while every day is becoming longer.
But I do also know and I want to share with you the fact that my duty is to close my ears and not listen and resist the bewitching sirens that say “let’s reopen,” “let’s return to normality,” “let’s challenge the enemy and fearlessly step outside under the inviting spring sun to go on with our lives.” Other much bigger and more powerful countries attempted to do so after falling prey to the sirens, but they are now drowning into a powerful spiral of infections and death, from where they are they still can’t poke their heads above the surface!
It is true that we have so far miraculously coped with the trouble of the all troubles, which is the protection of life. We are not counting dozens of dead per day. We are witnessing how the infection curve in Albania is being kept better in control than most of European countries. We find no lack of hospital beds and we are not seeing our beloved ones dying because of the lack of ventilators. The country has recorded no deaths among the healthcare workers and corpses are not piling up so high that we have no place where to bury them, just it is unfortunately the case in countries much bigger than ours. And therefore we are experiencing even stronger pain from the war consequences, when the pain due to it is not as strong as it is today for many, many other nations.
But my duty is not to confuse the pain from this war, which is not mild at all, with the real cause of our stubbornly defensive stance. I know, it is very true that this our strong defensive stance violates the freedom of citizens and the economy of Albanian households, as well as our national economy. However, don’t forget, even you forget it, I don’t! The freedoms will be restored as soon as we win this war. The economy will recover once this war is over. But we can’t revive the dead again, if we are betray today our cause to protect every single life at any cost.
I know it pretty well and I don’t forget for a single moment that it is my duty too to do whatever it takes to relief, if at all, the pain from war consequences on all of those whose household economy has been significantly affected. And you should know well that we have spared no expense and nothing possible and we will spare nothing to make sure that no individual or family is ever left alone in this struggle for existence. We have spared no expense and will never spare to help provide a sigh of relief to all those whose household economy has been worst affected due to the effects of the war.
Ask your own selves: Could be possibly be a Prime Minister who wouldn’t have wished to render everything you need just to make sure that this huge distress doesn’t take its toll? There could be no such a PM. And trust me, just like we have set up a network of local and international experts to cope with this war in terms of health, which also explains the success we have achieve so far, in the same way we have built a network of local and international experts to make the best of it in supporting the battle against the effects this war has inflicted and will inflict upon the worst hit among you and upon our national economy! And forgive me for reminding you of what I told you before, from day one: We must and will do our best so that no one lacks vital assistance. But everyone needs to understand that we can’t use whole our ammunition immediately, while fighting a war that nobody knows how long it will last and from where we could emerge badly damaged, but in no way utterly destroyed.
I am sincerely sorry that the opposition has completely wasted the great opportunity to mobilize its energies and put them in the service of this war as an additional positive energy in the two fronts: jointly ensure the population’s health and ensure together with us the economic resistance of those who are really in need of support and of the country itself. I have called on the opposition chairman to join forces with me and join together our experts, either to win the fight for the citizens’ lives on the frontline of the war, or resist together on the front of economic protection of individuals and the families. You all know the answer: allegations about the heroic work being done on the frontline and recipes of illusions regarding the economic protection. I am not complaining and I am blaming no one! I am just sorry, deeply sorry that instead of unification in this war, with the only power to defend being the life of every citizen and with the only party to win being only Albania, the weapons of poor and useless power struggle have not been put down, neither the party ranks have not been broken, neither for the sake of the lives of people, nor for the sake of our homeland that should overcome this historic ordeal at all cost. However, it is never too late. And my appeal to the opposition and its leader is: let us join forces without thinking any longer; let us discuss without hesitation the steps on both fronts; let’s confront – of course at a social distance, face to face on online meetings – our ideas, decisions and the quality of their implementation; let’s talk to the people with one voice to protect every Albanian life, from Shkodra, where many think of the coronavirus as a communist that should be ridiculed to Vlora, where some think of the Covid as the opposition that can be defeated easily. Let’s simply become Albanians, with no political suffixes and no political purposes, but the goal to together as a country and nation and as representatives of this people emerge successful from this great challenge in history. I wish that this sincere and wholeheartedly appeal doesn’t fall upon death ears at such a delicate moment in this war, where we have travelled just the half of the tunnel and only a thin thread separates us from moving forward towards the exit, or going backwards towards a dead end.
However, I would like to apologize that I may have taken longer than you would have liked to share with you the substance of the Extended Support Package for those most affected among you. But no war, no battle, no match can be won without a common strategic goal, no victory strategy can be built without clear principles for all and no army, no group, no team can successfully fight without well kept all, in mind and heart, the purpose and principles of the victory strategy. Bu no war, no battle and no fight can be won without a common strategic goal, and no victorious strategy can be developed without principles clear to everyone, and no army, no group and not team would successfully fight without everyone keeping the goal and the winning strategy in their hearts and minds.
The strategic goal is simple: Win the war with least possible loss of lives and woes from this pandemic. The initial economic package helped to relief pain of those instantly affected from the first moment of attack, around 123,000 families benefiting social assistance, those who acted on government orders to shut down their small businesses, as well as hundreds of thousands of retirees. The economic assistance doubled, whereas small business operators that were first affected benefited a wartime salary that is being paid following the verifications by the Taxation Administration, and the retired people benefited pension indexation, even though the financial conditions are not the optimum ones.
When we announced the first economic package, I have clearly stated that our support would not be limited to that package and today, after having carefully monitored the dynamics on both fronts, that of the fight for life and the front for the economy, time has come for the support package to further expand. Because, until last weekend, since the first package was launched, many other people have been directly affected and rightly ask for and deserve help, so that they are not left alone. The attacks have taken place wave after wave and, as of today, in addition to the individuals and families benefiting under the first package, this extended package will support a total of 176,000 other families and individuals, who have been attacked at the same time, but they don’t belong the same category. But we will provide everyone the financial means to better cope with the next 40 decisive days until end of May. Why until the end of May? This is because we believe that by keeping the protective chain of unity and national solidarity tight, the curve of infection will take a continued downward trend and we will be able to carefully and by prudent steps move outside the today’s perimeter of siege, but by enabling the normal return to work, certainly under strict conditions, of a significant number of those who will benefit under the second extended package.
But in any case, the government will be ready to announce a third support package between 15 and 20 May, depending on the dynamics of the war, in order to help again all those who are unable to work due to inability to move outside of the siege perimeter. So, any beneficiary under this Extended Package will be provided support to resist without the nightmare of bleeding the household coffer dry until end of May. That’s why the support package has been conceived as one-off payment and, as I already stated, it includes several categories, namely 10,000 workers in the tourism sector, 66,000 big business workers who have been temporarily suspended, so every business with an annual turnover of over 14 million lek, which were shut down or significantly reduced their activity, as well as 100,000 small business workers, who have been generating a minimum turnover due to indirect impact triggered by the total lockdown and businesses that were not entitled to benefit under the first support package. I would like to recall the past days when a number of complaints were lodged with the Taxation Administration, claiming that small businesses were denied first payment and a misunderstanding was created that was then incited by the usual accusations, alleging that they were denied of government assistance. Not indeed.
Indeed, the majority of them were not entitled to benefit under the first support package, although the crisis impacts on their turnover and revenue was significant, yet they were not included in the category of the affected businesses included in the first package, but they were to be included in the extended support package we are announcing today.
I tried a lot to explain that these businesses will be included in the today’s extended support package and this is the case, and they are included in this package together with thousands of other businesses and individuals who didn’t apply for the first package, being fully aware that they were not entitled to benefit.
And here we are today seeking to offer a fair and serious treatment of everyone by resorting to all opportunities we can afford at this moment. Anyhow, with the enemy still around and being at a moment of this war when things are going well, but yet we still don’t know how when it will be over, we should be ready to resist as long as it will last.
To the category of 100,000 individuals and families, which includes all small business operators and employees who were not entitled to benefit under the first package, we will allocate a fund of $40 million, or four billion lek and each individual in this category will be paid a cash assistance of 40,000 lek or $400.
Likewise, to all workers who have lost their jobs in the private sector, a total of 66,000 individuals, we will earmark 2.64 billion lek, or $26,4 million and they will all receive a payment of $400. We are aware of the fact that tourism has taken the brunt of the crisis. The new extended support package provides a new financial instrument for tourism, the garment industry and all manufacturing businesses, which will help create a considerable circulation capital in this sector. But before we come to this instrument, I would like to add that the list of individuals entitled to benefit direct support of $400 includes more than 10,000 employees in tourism sector and, to this end, the package includes an additional fund of $4 million. So, the extended package totalling $70 million will address the need for some more breath in the household economy of more than 176,000 individuals. It is a significant amount of money that is going to be provided to all of those who desperately need to feel our support and whom we will never let alone, of course urging them at the same time to continue their resistance and respect the rules thanks to which we will win this war.
The new financial instrument for tourism, garment industry and the manufacturing businesses is based on a sovereign guarantee fund of $150 million, which will be made available with the risk to be shared both by the government and the banks, taking also into account the needs of these sectors. And, as far as the first guarantee fund is concerned, the government has decided to take over cost of interest on loans.
The extended economic support package stipulates that for all enterprises (except the banking system, telecommunications and public companies, as well as the supply chain companies of essential commodities that have had a significant volume in this period), payment of instalments of profit tax is postponed until September 30. Whereas for the operators in tourism sector, garment industry, call centers and small businesses with an annual turnover of up to 14 million lek or 140,000 dollars, these payments are postponed until December 31 of this year.
Settlement of the above payments will be made in the following periods proportionally. The Extended Support Package will be approved in the next 48 hours and allocation of the respective funds will start as of April 20.
Last but not least, a few words about the rightly worried fellow citizens, currently outside of the country’s border. I offer a great sincere apology to all of them, because I am saddened at their unusual suffering due to impossibility to return home, to their home and at the same time I criticize everyone else who play the patriot and the democrat with this great plight of the people! It is shameful to play the patriot and allege about Albanian citizens being denied their fundamental right to return home by “Tirana’s dictatorship,” at a time when we have introduced extreme measures, precisely in order to be right where we are now vis-a-vis this invisible enemy that would have mutilated us if we were not to act and take such measures. Playing politics would translate into the population’s mass infection and would induce humanitarian catastrophe, which, also thanks to the sacrifice of those thousands of Albanians who are outside the borders and who suffer from the impossibility of returning home, we have managed to prevent from happening.
Anyway, we will have enough time to talk about these pseudo-patriotic bragging once all this is over, but in the context of steps to gradually ease the drastic measures, as we have already announced last week, we have readied the plan for a very careful reopening of the repatriation routes.
Tomorrow will make all the modalities public and flights will start, first from Rome, most likely this Saturday. Whoever wishes to be repatriated should go through a direct channel of flight booking at their cost, including the booking of the hotel in the series of hotels that have been made available as quarantine facilities. Further details will be provided tomorrow.
To conclude, I would never cease repeating, even though risking to become unbearable, that in this war we have no but only one path, though today the seemingly the longest one, but which shortens our distance more than any other shorter path that would otherwise damage us a lot in the future. This is the path of wining this war with honour and great health! That is why it is so difficult, but I believe that seeing what other countries are being through and seeing each other’s family every day, we do not find it so difficult to imagine that there could be no fairer and better path than this!
Patience, trust and courage, dear sisters and brothers! Sooner or later, once this evil is gone and once sufferings give place to relief, we will all feel proud of everything we are doing every day.
Thank you!
