Good morning! As we had already announced, we are holding this session of conversation, after having really attentively and carefully taken notice of all the comments over the recent days and after having collected and selected some of the most “harsh” ones, about which I will have the help from two communication office specialists.
I would like to start with some comments made by some of my Facebook page friends who are directly or indirectly interested in raising the monthly wages for fire-fighters.
It is true that the pay hike actually doesn’t meet their just request and it doesn’t meet our objectives, because it is about this three-month period, but fire-fighters will see their pay increased under the next year’s state budget, just like it will be the case with the doctors, nurses and teachers.
Therefore, I would like to tell all the fire-fighters and their families that I fully understand their discontent and insecurity, perhaps because we haven’t sufficiently explained that this just an initial step around this year-end period, as we already did with the pay rise for all other categories, but once the new state budget bill is improved, just like we project another pension indexation to cope with war-related inflation, as I already said, the fire-fighters, teachers, doctors and nurses will see their pay increased as part of our annually pay rise program.
FB comment: All Albanian households consume more than 800 KW for heating during winter months.
PM Edi Rama: This is not true. We have repeatedly stated, based on the data from the power distribution operator (OSHEE) in the past years, when the electricity consumption has actually increased, especially at the peak of the summer season and the total number of the households for the households consuming more than 800 KW at the peak of summer and in January in particular is estimated at around 60,000. Of course, if we are to consider that two or more families share the same living spaces in a large house with more boilers and a high number of appliances, consumption certainly may go up, but we are talking about these families that account for just 4% of more than 1.9 household consumers.
Question from public members: How the fixed-charge electricity bills, which don’t coincide with the electricity meter dials, will be estimated?
PM Edi Rama: The story of fixed-charge bills is a story of the past now. There are no longer fixed-charge electricity bills in Albania, although there are still bills that are set according to a consumption average rate, when reading the electricity meter is impossible. The number of such subscribers or consumers is very low and there are no cases when the electricity bill doesn’t reflect the electricity meter dials. It is a practice that is now history and there is a very good channel of communication launched by the power distribution operator to receive and handle all the complaints and such misunderstandings.
FB comment: It will happen just like you rascal say. You people deserve worse than that. Don’t you understand that our country and Norway only, rich in rivers like no other country, generate enough electricity to supply entire Europe, still we face power shortages. This is the case with the mines, with mining towns gripped by total misery. The same goes for the electricity; we apply electricity, yet we face power cuts.
PM Edi Rama: Insults are definitely not arguments. But I think there is no reason for me to get angry with any of this Facebook page friends, who for reasons of their political affiliation or because they might have completely lost faith in politics, they throw insults. They are the last to be blamed for such insults, considering all sorts of vulgar insults we happen to come across every day and night thrown via the television channels and web news portals by some professional haters of the politics. In the meantime, it is important for everyone to understand. It is true that Albania is really the second richest country in water resources after Norway in the European continent. However, it is equally true that this is not sufficient at all to claim that the country is home to the largest number of rivers like no other country, as Martin says, then we would generate enough electricity to supply entire Europe. But electricity doesn’t flow from the river straight to the power socket and the lighting lamp, but it comes from the power generation system by the hydropower plants. With its current generation capacities, hydropower plants in Albania meet only 75% of consumption when they are working at full capacity. This means that the remaining 25% of the domestic demand should be met through the power imports, because there is no other solution. In the meantime, the generation capacity significantly drops amid the prolonged drought periods and imports increase consequently. This is for sure. It is a fact, not an opinion.
As far as the mines are concerned, the situation in the mines is like day and night if compared to the past, although a lot remains to be done to completely alter it. Likewise, the miners’ pay rate and their treatment cannot be compared to the medieval-like conditions we all witnessed just a few years ago.
FB comment from members of the public: These are all propaganda. You are definitely an intelligent man and that’s why you staged a whole play with the electricity rate increase in October so that you could again emerge as the nation’s saviour, the one who is supposedly doing utmost effort to save money. And you succeeded in convincing some compliable individuals here, who have declared you “a nation’s hero” and keep behaving obsequiously in most possible disgusting ways. Everybody knows that electricity consumption in October is not very high as heating is not necessary or is needed for just a few hours. What interests you most are the months of November and December when you will collect a lot.
PM Edi Rama: I think it is not gracious and appropriate for a girl or a woman to resort to such an abusive language by using such words. However, I reiterate, there is no reason and it is impossible for me to get angry because of such language, when it is used by ordinary commentators or people, who access this page, as long as we come across such a rhetoric on daily and nightly basis from the highest levels of the political or media representation, namely an entire pack of professional haters who invade TV channels and web portals to confuse people.
I haven’t performed any heroic deeds and I haven’t absolutely emerged as a sort of a saviour. However, it is for sure that I live by and live for this duty and this is a position to deliver results in the country’s and the citizens’ best interest, in the efforts to improve the citizens’ living standards and relief as much as possible the tangible and psychological toll of this war.
The war-driven inflation was not triggered by the government, it was not triggered by me and I am not seeing, and it is impossible that a government around the world can eliminate inflation, but instead they try to ease and make maximum efforts to provide relief to the people.
Of course, the electricity consumption is lower in October, but the point is that if it was not for two components that convinced us to postpone enforcement of the 800kW consumption cap – namely the rain, given that last October was a dry month, as well as a downward consumption trend we are gladly to witness starting – we would definitely need the higher rate collections from the ones consuming more than 800 kW and their number is really high. This is a fact. Their number is around 60,000 at the peak of the winter season in January, but their number normally ranges from 30,000 to 40,000, including the homes shared by two or three families.
FB comment by a member of the public: “Mr. Prime Minister, most of the citizens save energy, because they can’t afford paying as the majority of them survive on small pensions. However, who is going to pay the bill of the public administration and the state institutions that are the biggest debtors to the state?
PM Edi Rama: The public administration will certainly be at the forefront of this effort through the power of example during the upcoming threatening winter in terms of the energy sources worldwide, as well as for our country, exactly for the reasons we have repeatedly explained several times now and we will keep explaining patiently. To this end, we have developed an energy saving plan and if you are to visit the Prime Minister’s office you would find out that it is not lightened as it used to be previously.
On the other hand – and I am citing it as an example of the daily activity here as well as in the other institutions – an energy administrator will be named and a saving target of 15% has been imposed on all state institutions.
Of course, this would require persistence, patience, commitment and responsibility, but I fully agree that the state administration should lead this process.
FB comment: You are wrong, Mr. Prime Minister. If you really wish to build a state and prevent illegal constructions, based on the law you should take the following actions:
- Confiscate whole construction structure
- Send builder to prison
- Send the Head of the National Inspectorate for the Protection of the Territory to prison
- Send local inspectors to prison
- Send technical director to prison
This is the only way to educate and make sure that nobody dares to breach the law again. However, you apply double standards, sending an ordinary citizen to prison, while imposing fines on oligarchs, sequestering an extra floor today, but compensating them for the show by granting them public tenders a day later. Not everyone would buy into these.
PM Edi Rama: First of all, you are totally confusing the time we are living in. I partially agree with you. Based on the law you cite, it is clear what can be totally or partially sequestered or confiscated, but sending this or that to prison is neither my duty nor –God forbid it – my competence, because it is neither the political party nor the government or the Prime Minister the ones who send people to the prison, but the justice system. If you would be asking me “what are you doing with the justice system,” I would answer that we are doing the right thing, but, anyway we should still suffer, and I personally suffer a lot in the face of such a situation, because there could be no reason in the world for me to confront you, just because prosecutors and totally corrupt judges have failed to do their job. However, building a justice system has taken centuries in the world. We embarked on this path just a few years ago and a lot of patience is needed. If there is a special anti-corruption prosecution office, SPAK, is now in place, despite its shortcomings and despite our claims, the office is already working. And if high-level officials from the ruling party have been sent behind the bars this means that something has changed, a path has been opened, but cases of injustice are numerous and should be addressed, and, on the other hand, if it was a matter “of my oligarchs”, as you put it, you wouldn’t never find out that someone has built 4646 square meters of extra construction floors illegally.
Question via social media: Why are all the responsible individuals not arrested?
PM Edi Rama: Here, again! You tell me why? It is exactly what I am actually saying: it is not the government that arrests people. Not all the state bodies and institutions have probably done their job properly. I am not saying everything is working perfectly, but I already said why 40 construction companies, 18 mayors, including also local Socialist officials and chairmen, 12 heads of urban planning, 25 chief inspectors in regional Inspectorate for the Protection of the Territory, two regional ALUIZNI directors, four members of the territorial regulatory councils are not arrested? You tell me! I am asking you to tell me this. Does the government arrest them? No! Do I arrest them? God forbid it, because their number would have been much higher.
Comment from members of the public: It is good for you to have finally realized that we knock on the state’s doors yet ordinary people are denied of everything, but the ones who emerge the real winners are the thieves and the deceitful people. We have remained hostages to the justice system you own.
PM Edi Rama: I really feel like I am about to yell and scream when you call it “the justice system we own.” It is not the justice we own. It is the justice we are fighting to build a fair and a just system in this country. I feel like throwing up at this scandalous justice system that rules in favour of the builder by turning down the fine imposed on him for constructing 4646 square meters of extra floors, violating the construction permit for profit purposes. This is the justice system that makes me feel sick. As for visiting the state institutions to benefit public services, I would like to tell you Flutura that 95% of public services are available online and there is no reason for anyone to knock on any door of the state institutions. You had to do so previously. You had to wait in long queues and elbow through the crowd of other people just to obtain a medical record, to obtain a certificate or a document of whatever type. But this is no longer the case now. You should no longer wait in line to pay the electricity bill. Yes, there are many things that need to be improved, but it is impossible that we deny everything that has been built over all these years.
Comment from members of the public: Is it only now during your third term in office that you recall the fact that illegal constructions continue?
PM Edi Rama: No, this is not true. It is not that I am thinking about the illegal constructions now in the third term in office. I have been thinking about it since I used to serve as Tirana Mayor and if green spaces exist in all main streets of Tirana now, this is because I was the one to think about banning illegal construction from day one. This is because I started demolishing unauthorized buildings and restoring the public spaces to the citizens since day one, but you could have been very young and you probably don’t remember them. The number of illegally-built construction is ten times lower than the time we embarked on this battle.
Comment from members of the public: Would you do exactly what Europe is doing? Why don’t you increase salaries to 2000 euros, just like the salaries in Europe and stop talking instead?
PM Edi Rama: I am not advising anyone. Instead, I am just sharing facts. I am providing my arguments and, most importantly, I would beg that you refrain from drawing comparisons with Europe in any respect, because they really could have their salaries high, but I would invite you to look at their tax rates and social insurance rates, the house rents, the public transport fares and the ordinary families in Europe are not really happy. We are all experiencing a global crisis that has primarily affected this continent and we are facing the rising inflation caused by the war and not by the government.
