Address of Prime Minister Edi Rama at today’s plenary session in Parliament:
I heard the previous speaker, and it’s inevitable to ask myself at what degree you are able to believe what you say. It seems to me that your problem is not that you keep reciting like robots a poem on poverty that the rhapsody composer writes for you, but it is that you don’t care at all about how ridiculous you look. You just lie, lie and lie.
We don’t expect you to commend anything, for this is not your job, but you can’t either throw mud against every single thing that is going on, pick on every company in the most incredible way, on every enterprise and entrepreneur working in this republic, make the most strange accusations for every project, every decision, every initiative of the government because in addition to becoming very unreliable, you show yourselves for who you really are, totally incapable of being an alternative, totally incapable of giving an idea, even a general one, about what you stand for, what your alternatives are.
It couldn’t be otherwise for even when the party’s administrator presented a so-called new program, it was nothing but the program of the previous government, with the only difference that from 10% the flat tax would be 9%, and those who earn less would pay even more, while those who earn more would pay even less.
Meanwhile, this whole projection of change leads us to two very simple conclusions – which we can make available for you – and which have been drawn not by us, but by financial organizations with which we cooperate. It means that you want to raise public debt to 91% in three years, while claiming that you will make economy grow neither more nor less but 19%. This is typical of what you did when you were in government, typical of what you did when you ruled the municipality of Tirana, typical of the colossal gap between you and reality.
As for the city of Vlore that you mentioned earlier, I don’t know where you find the courage to say that nothing has been done in that area in 3 years. Actually, what has been done and is being done in that area in these 3 years is more than what was done throughout the years of your government, all of them together, and even beyond. You left Vlore like a fake pocket, not to mention the entrance road to the city that you never built, while we have connected Vlora to the national road.
You left Vlora completely adrift, without any budgetary support in 8 years. Zero! Actually we are making a huge investment in Vlora, starting with the coastline up to the secondary access that is strategic for the further development of tourism, so that no kilometre-long convoys will be created at the entrance to the tunnel which you rebuilt, and transformed it from a thoroughly-planned tunnel into a ridiculous one at the entrance of which you put the Albanian flag. The only investment you have made in Vlora is that tunnel and it is a ridiculous work, in all respects.
Not to mention the road to the Vlora River, which you never took into consideration. A road that means integration for the whole of the region, not just from the infrastructure point of view, not just because it gives a chance to all of the communities residing in this area to have a faster access, but because it take to another stage, a necessary relation between tourism and rural development in tourist areas. Something that has never come close to the horizon of your concerns, because for you tourism was just a matter of “find a land plot, occupy it and build on it”. You used to say that construction is prosperity, and everything comes naturally. That’s how you destroyed not a few things.
I heard the previous MP speaking, and she mentioned the Freedom House report and said “nosedive”. Where does she find the courage to do this? Don’t you know, or you just keep singing like robots the poverty song? I will read for you. Referring to 2016, the Freedom House report on Western Balkan countries states in black and white, this is not an interpretation, it’s a literal translation: With the exception of Albania, the results of all the countries, candidates and potential candidates for EU membership, are declining, they are not improving, with the exception of Albania, and they have disturbing indicator of their level of engagement with EU standards.
Do you read “with the exception of Albania” that we have gone worse? If so, you are reading it wrongly, and you can correct yourselves if you read further where, in terms of the standards of democratic government, our country has made progress from 2013 to 2015. In 2013 it was ranked with 4.5, while in 2015 it was ranked with 5. Does this mean that we have worsen?
I won’t dwell upon further assessments, but I want to clarify one last thing based on this report, and this is that Albania has marked the most positive score than the regional average. We have never said that we are second to Germany, or that we will be second to Germany. You said that.
I heard one of you say that the ambassadors are coming to meet with the parliamentary group, and this is the end of the world. Actually, the judiciary reform is a completely joint project of Albania, the European Union and the United States. At this point, Albania is no exception compared to the countries that have joined the European family. Regarding the reform of the justice system, in countries that have joined the European family, the project has been a shared one.
The fact the ambassadors are coming to meet with the parliamentary groups, I don’t know if this has happened in other countries, but if it happens here it’s only for meeting with your group because as far as the meeting with the group of the Socialist Party and the group of the Socialist Movement for Integration is concerned, they are totally welcomed and they have nothing to ask for or to clarify. Our coalition, the Socialist Party and the Socialist Movement for Integration were very clear and willing to vote for the package of constitutional amendments yesterday. You were not.
When you are going to be willing is a matter that I don’t want to discuss now, but there is one sure thing: the representatives of the United States and of the European Union will meet every group in parliament, will meet with you, because it is you who are not willing to vote. Yesterday, we were ready to vote, while you keep saying: “we’re ready to vote, but we’ll see it”. You said what you see. You see that you have this dream with Albanians grasping guns to protect you from justice reform. But usually history comes back twice, one as a tragedy and the next time as a comedy. If the first time you caused Albania and Albanians a big tragedy by having them armed, this time you do nothing but show how ridiculous you are, led by your rhapsody composer who writes all the songs for you. Actually it is the same song that you keep singing here. And I am really sorry that this happens also with the youngest generation which, unfortunately, doesn’t seem that young when you speak. When you speak, you look all alike, rhapsodic robots of a party that has become very miserable.
Many thanks.
***
It is really hard to be a robot and go beyond the text. When someone puts in front of you a different text, you make mistakes, just like you did. You didn’t talk at all about the media, but rather about the Freedom House report, and quoted it in the wake of some other reports. As a reply to you, I quoted and I am very happy to quote it again for you, a saying that goes: “To err is human, but to persist in error is diabolical.” You persisted in your error, so I will quote it once again for you: With the exception of Albania, the results of all the countries, candidates and potential candidates for EU membership, are declining. With the exception of Albania.
Whereas, since you referred to 2004, I don’t know if you remember but another socialist government was ruling in 2004. Therefore, there is no problem for us. It is you who have some issues here, and no reference at all.
I’ve made up my mind to not refer to domestic sources, neither to those of the government or INSTAT when I discuss with you in terms of economic growth, but to refer only to international sources for, I believe, it is harder for you to include them in the decriminalization framework. Although at this point you still haven’t told Albanians where the criminals here in Parliament are. You have involved this parliament in a never-ending story, by saying that there are here 19 criminals, and since you can’t find any criminal here, you don’t know now how to interpret your text. No criminal will come out of here, for there is no one.
We agreed to do together with you the greatest unconstitutional barbarism on the planet. It is such an unconstitutional barbarism, that we agreed together with you to not bring it to the Constitutional Court, because we know very well that if we bring it to the Constitutional Court, there is no Constitutional Court on this planet that will accept the law on decriminalization like a constitutional law. However, we agreed together with you, and the only reasonable thing was the one we added in, because you did not have it, and it was to include also those who are in the administration. If we stayed only at the level of the elect, be sure that the next generations would mock at us because there would be no product.
Returning to international bodies, I would ask the MP to refer to the World Bank in terms of economic growth. The World Bank report shows what has brought economic growth, how it happened and why Albania envisaged to have a greater increase in economic growth this year, 3.4%. Because what we committed and have been fighting for since the first day, the economic structure is changing, the growth model is changing. Your model was “you can build wherever you want, because construction is prosperity”. According to you, people could build everywhere, even in the river, there was no problem. In addition to construction, there were also remittances.
We said it since we published our program that this is not a growth model, but rather a model of devastation. This is not a model that guarantees a sustainable growth, rather it is a model that brings unsustainable growth. A growth for growth, which is the same as the ideology of the cancer cells. A model of growth that has brought us the destruction of natural resources, unmatched by anything that done by arsonists and invaders of this country, all together throughout the centuries: destruction of beaches, destruction of rivers, destruction of forests, the destruction of water resources, the destruction of everything. Thank God the Albanian people took you where you belong, on this side of the room, because otherwise the destruction would have taken frightening proportions.
Is it enough to cope with the eagerness of Albanians who rightfully expect more? Absolutely not! Is it enough to heal the horrible wounds that you caused to our national economy and to our households? Absolutely not! There is no other way to have this country revive, but the only right way of work and endurance of all the pain and sacrifices that reforms require, the reforms that you never had the courage to do. The only major reform of the fiscal system in Albania that you made, was the reform of the Public Partnership with Sude & Co.
The only important work that you built requires today first of all over 100 million Euros to be completed because you abandoned the National Road like you did with any other road; and second, it opened such a pit, also because all the rest was a real mess, and we still need to fill that pit, don’t we?
Had we had the opportunity of more than 600 million Dollars that we returned to those who were indebted because of you, we would have done a lot more. But this is not little either. Returning more than 600 million Dollars to the whole chain of services and production on behalf of the government is obviously a work of extreme importance in order to set an ethical standard between the government and all the sectors, individuals or companies.
You have committed to be the only party in Europe, no doubt about that, maybe you have a sister party in one of the developing countries, to attack companies, to attack entrepreneurs. It doesn’t happen, and you cannot find it in any annals of any story of any European party, not today, but since it was created, that uses the press conferences stand as the pulpit of the prosecutor against companies. That’s what you do. Go on, but the farther you go on the path of the “Misery Poem”, which the rhapsody composer writes for you, the fewer your chances to get along, not with us, but with the Albanian people.
Come and vote on Monday the judicial reform, so at least some decency will remain with you at this point, because it is important, more than for us who we are here, for the progress of our country and for our integration into the Union European.
***
It has been a while since I didn’t listen to Sali, for it is the same song, but today I stayed only for one reason, because I am very interested in listening to what he is going to say on the judicial reform. Did you hear anything? No words! No words on the judicial reform, but just blah-blah, a torrent of words which is not worth dealing about, but just to put an emphasis on 2 or 3 things that are important in terms of what we are doing.
It seemed to me that he was an anti-Sami who didn’t say: “Albania, what it was, what it is and what it will become”, but rather “Albania, what it will be, what it is and what it was”. What it was years ago. His clock has stopped at the time when Albanians slapped him 1 million times and chased him away from the office of the previous government.
We must not make the mistake of taking Sali seriously. Sali should not be taken to the prosecutor’s office, he must be taken to the Emergency. For he is at an unstoppable phase of slipping to madness. There are many different reasons, but we cannot find them. An unstoppable slipping which is first of all the problem of his party, for as long as it was the problem of the people, the people were able to solve it in the most perfect way.
What is important in what was said?
First, the justice reform is what Sali finds absolutely difficult to face with dignity, and all this blah-blah, all the alibis, excuses and delays that come always only from one side, his party, are meaningful expressions of the fact that – as it was highlighted even today – he spoke with his silence. No word on justice reform.
No later than yesterday, the Socialist Party and the Socialist Movement for Integration expressed their willingness to vote in principle the draft submitted before the special commission by a group of experts, and translated by Venice into the Euro-American English, not in the English spoken by SHQUP. We said we are ready to vote it. The Democratic Party asked for time, they said “we’ll see!” Did they ask for time only to vote, or just to find the next alibi for not voting?
The judicial reform is the commitment of the Alliance for European Albania. It is not a commitment of the Democratic Party, for which it was not a priority even when it was in government. No letter in the government program for the mandate when Albanians trusted us. Under these conditions, they need justice. And on the other hand they continue to talk about and bring in the political environment any sort of criminal names. Meanwhile they continue to neglect a simple fact that people see and understand, that the State Police is today the No. 1 protagonist, as it should be, in the fight against crime after it broke away from the lap of the crime where we found it sitting.
A few words on the roads. It is typical of African dictators to have “plenty of roads” in the beginning, in the middle and in the end of their speeches. It was even one of them who said during the inauguration of a road: “Now that it is paved” – he paved a road where he killed hundreds people before starting works – “it will be easier to clean out the blood of traitors and criminals”. But what is the truth? The documented one, not the one people are told.
Firstly, to open a road that doesn’t require the prime minister or the government to have a supernatural power, and neither a brave man who will come and build roads. It requires money, it requires a project, and it requires a contract and the capacity to monitor the contract. If a government has these four things, it can open the roads without any problem, without calling for assistance on Mujo or Halil.
Opening roads without any project, or with projects that are a shame, without having any money, by making procurements for pennies while the road costs 1 million ALL, with contracts that are a shame, with their monitoring capacity being a shame as well, you need but one conditions: Your name needs to be Sali Berisha. If your name is not Sali berisha, you cannot embark on that journey, no matter who you are, no matter where you are, in Europe, in America, or in Australia. If you embark on this journey, it means you are preparing to lead your country and your people into an abyss for a quite simple reason, for you are calling on companies to invest the money that you don’t have, you enter contracts that guarantee you no relation with the companies, in addition to having zero monitoring capacity.
He counted the roads. All the MPs of the district of Vlore heard it. What it counted and what is there belong to totally two different worlds that have no connection with each other. This is the list of the roads we have inherited. This is an official list of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. 102 roads opened and then abandoned, together with a bill, not to complete them but, in the first place, to have companies resume works. The bill amounts to 280 million dollars. So 102 abandoned roads and the companies involved in these constructions, everything blocked by the banks, while the government has a debt of $ 280 million to them, which needs to be paid not to continue with the works, but to pay what they have done so far.
He says that we have opened not a single kilometre of road, and some others repeat what he says. I reiterate that to open roads is not an extraordinary thing. It requires money, it requires projects, it requires a contract, and that contract must be monitored. Here we have 44 roads that he abandoned. Roads for which we have repaid every penny to pay off the debts that you left to open those sites without having any money.
Sali and I are on first-name terms. It is a memorandum of understanding, with the difference that he called me a criminal, while I consider him being in a constant phase of slipping to madness.
So, only with the purpose of opening those sites to do just this, go from one road to another taking the pulpit with you, and singing the roads song, and leave the bill to the others coming behind you; leave the bill to the next government, leave the bill to the companies you involved in this adventure, and to the people who have to pay off the debts of this adventure.
Why did the IMF “fire fighters” rush in Albania? It is not me who says this, but senior economists of the World Bank. If governments are usually judged on their actions, economists have another special judgement, they judge governments on what governments prevent from being worse. Hadn’t we enter that agreement at the end of November 2013, we wouldn’t be able to pay salaries and pensions. This is the truth. This is the pit of the mini superpower, it was you who invented this term, mini superpower. You are either mini or superpower! You are mini, you are not superpower.
But the story doesn’t end here. There are 58 roads left uncompleted, because their completion requires money, and the money was spent to pay off the debts. 280 million dollars. If we had those 280 million dollars, we would finish all these roads. You said that money was due for the work that has been done. So, we should tell companies what you told them, that it is their obligation to the country to work with their own money. Actually, they did work with their money, until banks closed the doors for them, and in addition to leaving the roads unfinished, companies risked bankruptcy. Now, instead of the roads they show Albanians the list of the procurements they have made with 1% of the fund, 3%, 5% of the fund at the most, a bankrupt adventure that only who has the courage to tell the Albanians to take their money to Sude can embark on. Same old story, the state as a holding company!
What have we done? We have committed to not enter any project if we don’t have the money. We have committed, and this is part of the agreement with the Fund, and today the Albanian government doesn’t owe any penny to companies, and it doesn’t work by accumulating debts, although it is much easier. Companies come and tell us “allow us to finish this with our money”, and it is easy to tell them to go on with their money, so that we can stand on platforms and tell people how quickly we do this or that, but this kind of politics which is the most adequate expression of fiscal barbarism, would take us in the situation we are today.
There is a total of 102 roads, all of them abandoned. We have completed 44 of them, while another 58 are under process, provided that all the debts are paid off.
I won’t compete with you Sali on who has been abandoned in the streets. You have been abandoned in the streets. I don’t claim to have been abandoned in the streets. You are the man of the streets, you are competent for the streets, and you know every matter related to the streets, no doubt about that. Therefore, you are today the first and the last former head of a government, I guarantee you, in Europe, in Australia, in America and in Africa, who is building the kingdom of virtual defamation. You have launched your blog where you have gathered all the slanderers whom you have named “the digital citizen”. Your kingdom is getting bigger. You have created a kingdom in the cave of the slanders, and the cave is getting larger for there is an intimate relation between you and the cave, and I get it. How come a former prime minister can host all of the slanders and writers of all sorts of defamation? Sali, you are just an emulation board for slanders, but this is your choice.
I invite you to go and tell Albanians what they understand. Go and tell Albanians in Vlore, in Gjirokaster, in Delvine, in Tepelene, in the Vlora River that they have their roads. Go and tell them that the HPP that you built is producing energy. Go and tell all this, for from this platform you are speaking to people who have eyes and can verify if what you say is true. Go and tell residents of Berat and of the surrounding area there that you built the road Lushnje-Berat. Go and tell residents of Pogradec that you built their road. Go and tell residents of Divjake that you made big investments in agriculture. Speak on behalf of the DP, and tell them what the DP is, a force that believes it did a miracle, and in turn was punished in the most unfair way by the Albanians. Go on!
The canals of your rural Albania weren’t cleared for over 20 years, not to mention the drainage system. You are the only former prime minister who is proud to have beaches across his country where all sorts of seedlings sprout from the sand. Have you ever seen a beach become a botanic garden? That’s what you did to the beach in Durres, and it is obvious what feeds these plants from underneath the sand, thanks to your drainage system.
Go tell them all of this, and you are ok. I wish you to be always ok, but tell us just this – look at me, Sali! – are we going to do this justice reform, are you going to vote it? Or Shullazi won’t let you do it? Are you going to vote the justice reform, or the digital citizen won’t let you do it? Are you going to vote the justice reform, or your dreams of a mini superpower Albania that you used to rule won’t let you do it? You know better than us on what kind of justice, transparency, rules, laws, equality of procurements, property rights and so on, that mini superpower was built. Are you going to vote the justice reform Sali? Just answer.
We need you strong, we need you here, so that Albanians will never forget what they got rid of.
