Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama at the ceremony for the celebrations of Europe Day in Shkoder:

 

Madam Mayor!

Madam Ambassador of the European Union!

Dear friends!

I must say since the beginning that it is not easy to speak right here, right now, after assisting the opening of the house where the treasure of the Marubis is finally resting. Going from the museum of the Marubis to the official celebration of the European Union is a bit like going from the contemplation of “Sister Tone” to looking at that statue of “raise the revolutionary spirit”. However, we must keep up the revolutionary spirit in a process that is always unpredictable, but in the name of a dream that is irreplaceable.

This year’s May 9 has gathered us here in Shkoder, while last year’s May 9 gathered us in Butrint, in a similar sunset. I do not know if there is a message in the organization of meetings in these two geographic extremes, but if this is an encrypted message, we are free to interpret it at own way because it does not fall under the 5 priorities, and we don’t’ risk making a false move in the run-up to integration.

However, in the end, the confrontation of extremes in order to have them harmonized afterward, has made Europe the arbiter of communication, understanding, interaction in a much diversified continent, and also in the stubborn Albanian universe.

The confrontation between Butrint and Shkoder is a confrontation between two civilizations that are as similar morphologically as they are different, equally sifted by the maelstrom of history and the efforts of generations to live while progressing towards freedom, culture, nationality, sovereignty and, the most difficult but also the most noble, towards solidarity and civility which are the noble impulse that created the European Union.

Solidarity and civility are a trend of small communities within Europe, as much as they are the mirror of the temptations to reduce and abandon this vocation. I believe that today this resonates even more clearly in a context when the British are tempted by an island civility, by a splendid isolation that actually brought only troubles throughout history. I wish and hope that in the coming May 9, wherever we will be celebrating, the British ambassador will still be celebrating with us.

However Shkoder is an inevitable destination when you think about Albania and Europe, about Albanians as Europeans and about Albania as it was in the eyes of Europeans. The Shkoder of Muslims and Catholics, and even if it were a coincidence, it would be fantastic to hear the voice coming from the mosque interrupt the orchestra from Europe, because this is the European Albania that Shkoder embodies at best, a city that 160 ago hosted the man who founded the Marubi family, he who transformed in the Albanian land the political revolution started in Italy, in an iconic revolution by attaching one after the other, in thousands and thousands of snapshots, the pieces of an Albanian universe which today we have the extraordinary opportunity to have pulled together in an archive that proves at best that this country was no different from the countries beyond the Adriatic, and that it was an integrated part of the lifestyle and interaction with the countries beyond the Adriatic.

However, the 9th of May, which is today celebrated with fanfare and events that are impeccable in terms of the ceremony, can be defined with the beginning of Europe right after the war, with what the painting brags over photography, the canvas of unbridled fantasy towards a new civility frozen in the form and in the line, colourful and pure in all the brush strokes, and without any connection with the conventional black and white that would immortalize the images of the endless international conferences, the Europe of courage regimented in a series of codes and norms, without illustrations for children, full of enigma and figures, but without riddles and moral, with plenty of exercises and homework, but without the stimulus that sparks in the  beginners and the novice the fire of hope, the desire to have work done properly, and above all the attraction of big dreams.

In a few words, but the right ones, the words of Pope Francis in the “Charlemagne” award ceremony last weekend cannot but make us ask ourselves if Europe, by abandoning our common house and by erecting barriers after barriers is not breaking away forever from the wise project of the founding fathers. And by echoing these words, and since we are here a few days after the Day of Martyrs – without the sacrifice of whom May 9 would be merely a commemoration ceremony among many – I invite you that on this day, in Albania of today, in the Europe of tomorrow, we see and think while dreaming about what an 18 year old French guy of the Resistance wrote a few moments before he was executed by the Nazis in Paris: “What a pity to leave everything and be so close to victory. Be it so, but the human dreams do miracles! My last kisses to all of you.”

And I wish again with the words of Pope Francis that we, the children of this dream, will not be for Europe its last utopia.

To conclude, let me be a bit selfish because to speak about today’s European Union is impossible not to encounter selfishness along with all those values and principles that founded the EU, and that sounds less and less in ears of the spoiled people in France, England, the Netherlands, or anywhere else, who take peace, security, and whatever they found almost for granted, as something that belongs to them once and for all, and that they don’t feel they should share with others. While they forget that since the EU was founded, this is the longest period in history that Europe has lived in peace, without war. And certainly part of this is due to the EU, if not everything. But coming back to my selfishness, I am very proud that you are going to see in a while an outstanding work by an immigrant, Adrian Paci who, just as signor Pietro Marubi came 160 years ago as an immigrant from Italy to Shkoder and did one of the most extraordinary works in the world history of photography, left Shkoder 26 years ago and moved to Italy, and who will probably be named in the history of this city, in the history of this country, alongside Pjeter Marubi, Kel Marubi, Gegë Marubi, Kol Idromeno, Zef Kolombi and all the others. He was one of my students, and along with Anri Sala and Ornela Vorpsi, he was part of a group of students to whom I used to tell: “You are going to be important, but if you don’t remember who taught you, I will be forced to remind that to you in public.”

Thank you very much.