Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Speech to the Audience After the Signing of the Agreement to Organize the “World Law Congress Albania 2027” in Albania:

 

Señoras y señores, and here my Spanish ends. Lo siento, no hablo español.

I have to speak in English, and I must immediately share with you how terrified I am because I have to speak in the presence of someone that has been an inspiration for me when I was young and has been one of the strongest reasons why I then ran for leader of the Socialist Party of Albania, your legendary Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez.
So I apologize if I am unable to do my best, as I am truly terrified and, on the other hand, I am very humbled by having this opportunity to speak in front of you.

I can imagine that many of you can ask what the hell Albania has to do here; yes, it has to do because Albania is far from being what you have been told, it’s far from being the country that has been persecuted for so long from a stigma of being a dark place. In fact, the sun shines in Albania, it’s never dark. For being a country of criminals, of kidnappers, of thieves, it’s not that we don’t have all of that, but they are as much and as few as in every country and also for being a country whose passport was always seen as a very suspicious document. This has changed, and it is a great pleasure to be here among individuals who have shaped the history of Spain, but also the history of Europe and the world. And not just Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, but also another legend in our part of the world, the Western Balkans, Javier Solana, and also many others. And I want to take the advantage to say that it has been a privilege to get to know Javier Cremades, to host him in Albania, and to hear from him the many words he had to say about what we have done when it comes to fighting for a just country and for a country that, as a matter of fact, comes from a very, very difficult past, where never ever we had rule of law, where never ever we had an independent justice, where never ever we had tradition of institutions.

And in our quest for justice, Spanish recent history and Spanish model has been a source of inspiration. And I will go back to what Felipe Gonzalez said.
Politics is a struggle for power, but it is also the struggle for justice, and in this regard, I can’t be prouder that we will host the World Law Congress in 2027, and I can’t be more sure in inviting you all to come to Albania by telling you two things. First, you will never regret, and you will always want to come back, and secondly, you will not get bored a single minute if you are with us in Albania.

Albania today is like Spain once upon a time, when it started to rise after a very heavy past of dictatorship, and from a country that not long ago, but in my lifetime, was completely isolated from both the West and the East, a North Korea of Europe with 5,000 visitors a year, and most of them Marxist-Leninist coming to Albania.

We went close to 12 million last year, so somehow we approached the Champions League of Tourism, of course not in the level of Real Madrid like Spain is, but at least we are the new Girona of Europe when it comes to tourism, and it’s not bad, I guess.
On the other hand, I want to say that we have undergone incredible justice reform. We have gone through a major cleanup of our justice system from corrupt judges and prosecutors, a vetting process that has practically got a lot of attention and a lot of respect in Europe and has been instrumental for us moving forward. And for the first time since we have a state, and we have a young state, we became independent from the Ottoman Empire only in 1912.

We have a judiciary that is not in the hand of politics, and we have witnessed it by seeing people from our own party, from our own majority, be held accountable in front of justice. So we knew this, and we don’t regret. On the contrary, we are going to push as much as we can for the rule of law to be finally the common denominator of our society, and of course, there are many temptations today, especially in the western part of Europe, to think about leaving the European Union, to think about closing the borders, to think about going back in the old castles where countries were each in its own, and so on and so further.

Many times, I have been asked, ‘What is Albania’s plan B, with the European Union being our plan A?’ And I always answer very convinced that there is no plan B for us, because to have a plan B vis-a-vis the European Union is to have a plan B vis-a-vis your individual freedom, is to have a plan B vis-a-vis the rule of law, is to have a plan B vis-a-vis democracy. And if you have a plan B vis-a-vis these three things, then you are condemned to live in a B category society for many people, where there are winners and there are losers, and we don’t want that.

We want a country where everyone is given the chance to win, and no one can win on the shoulders of anyone else. And this can happen only if we pursue consistently individual freedom, rule of law, and democracy, and we can’t be happier, and I speak on behalf also of my colleagues and friends that are here, to be among you.
And you should be no less happy to be Spaniards and live in Spain. I’m talking here about the Spanish people present because there are also Chinese and others, but I’m sure they are also happy to be in Spain. Everyone is happy to be in Spain.  Spain is a fantastic country, a fantastic example.

Of course, you know, when you have something, it is in human nature to want something else, but my humble advice is you have more than enough having Spain, so don’t look for something else and you have more than enough having Spain in the European Union, so don’t wish for something else. We wish to be more and more like you and to be more and more with you. The history between Spain and Albania has been defined by Spain not being very much interested in our part of Europe historically, but now we are happy to see Melilla contribute to our tourism sector.

More than 20 contracts have been signed, so we’ll have a lot of Melilla hotels in Albania, which is a good omen, and I hope we’ll have more Spanish brands and more Spanish companies come to us, as Spanish tourists are coming more and more. I want to conclude by saying that Spanish tourists last summer were particularly happy in Albania because it happened that Spain was playing the Euro football cup and it happened that Spain had to beat Albania also.

And in many squares where the match was televised, Spanish tourists were quite surprised that at the end Albanian fans applauded the Spanish team, although they were beaten by the Spanish team. So this is our understanding of hospitality. The guests come always first, and as is written in our common law, first common law, the house of the Albanian belongs to God and the guest. So if you want to feel God sometime, come to Albania and you will understand what it means.

Javier, I don’t have words to express my gratitude to you and to express my gratitude to God for having met me with you and my gratitude goes even further because you finally met me with Felipe González. I had to win three elections and I had maybe to win another election to finally meet the legendary Felipe González, and you made it happen. So I’m very thankful, and I’m very thankful to everyone for having the patience to endure my speech. It’s never a good idea to ask a Balkan man to give a speech because they are never short, but I hope it was not boring.

Thank you very much.