Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama at the meeting with servicemen:

Good evening everyone!

Many thanks for this hospitality!

I would like to start this communication with you from where I left the weekly communication regarding what we have done, and my dissatisfaction for what we could achieve. For many people, – as far as I noticed, – have reacted unexpectedly according to me to the fact that I am dissatisfied with the government and our government.

Certainly there are many reasons to feel proud of what we have done, but the word satisfaction is a very big word in relation to government and governance, if we consider not the point from where we started, but the point we must reach.

How can I be satisfied with the government and governance, as long as there are still so many people who are in the grip of poverty, or at risk of poverty?

It is definitely something that others have not done before, transferring approximately 1 billion dollars from the state coffers to the coffers of households over the span of four years, in the form of tax cuts, in the form of not taking money for healthcare, or recently in the form of higher wages and pensions.

There is no question that it is not little, but how can we be satisfied and use the word satisfaction, if still to this day there are not quite a few Albanian children threatened by illiteracy due to the lack of a dignified school, or to the distance they have to travel every day to go to school?

It is certainly not little the fact that today Albania is not following the chain of corruption but is in a comprehensive battle against corruption. However, how can we be satisfied when not only it is no secret, but there is no Albanian who doesn’t know still to this day there is no certainty that in order to receive a service from the state you are not forced to pay?

If the distance with the Albania we had makes us feel proud of what we have done, the distance with the Albania we want, definitely makes us be unsatisfied because what remains to be done is much more than what has been done. And above all, I do not want either you or anybody else, when we talk about achievements or when we talk about increasing wages and pensions, think that for us it is enough and that you have to stand up and cheer us because a miracle occurred. Neither this is sufficient for us nor has a miracle been done.

Of course, if we compare today with yesterday, even for you the servicemen who lost the chance of early retirement, or who have been carrying since 2009 the burden of an obligation to return to the state not quite a small amount of money, after Albania joined NATO, and when we think that today we have actually removed this burden from your back, it’s definitely a reason to feel proud but it is not a reason to feel satisfied and tell you that this achievement was a sort of impossible destination.

I remember very well when the Constitutional Court declared illegal the government’s claim back then, for 5400 servicemen to return the money to the state, and when the then Minister of Finance said from the Parliament pulpit that “We will not implement this decision of the Constitutional Court, because it is illogical.”

It’s not hard for me to imagine how those among you felt in front of this arbitrariness, but the fact that you do not need to deal with this arbitrariness, does not mean at all that there has been a miracle, or that it is sufficient for us to stand before you as a parade of successes so that you can honour us with an attitude of higher reverence.

Certainly, this is not little and it could not be a reason not to be proud for having done step by step what we had to do in the first place, to put in place the downtrodden dignity by restoring a monthly food allowance that was removed.

But how is it possible that in the 21^st century, at the end of 2016, we could be satisfied with this much or with these things that in relation to the dignity of the military, in relation to your daily work, and in relation to your families, are not few but are enough neither, for they certainly are not a lot, that’s for sure!

Meanwhile, you know better than I that the Ministry of Defence accumulated 16 million euros of debt for service arrears to third parties in the context of that big mountain of debt, and while the monthly food allowance for the military was interrupted, money was found to buy surveillance equipment that would benefit not even the devil, let alone the army.

The fact that, if until yesterday our seagoing ships could not even patrol the sea because they had no fuel, it belongs definitely to the past, and we cannot but feel good that we have corrected these things in the process, but we cannot think that we have done a miracle due to the fact that today military ships can patrol the sea because they have fuel.

I say all this to reassure you once again that if you hear from us, if you hear from me speak with passion for what we have done, you must never think that I am satisfied. And I’d ask you to consider my displeasure as a sign of hope that comes from the fact that this is awareness of how much still remains to be done, and certainty that the fact that we are aware of this makes us reliable. Because we did not come here to say that the successes of the Albanians are shocking China or are making us equal to Germany, or are making us live in a country where achievements go beyond imagination. And we are not talking about the propaganda of many years ago, but we are talking about a propaganda that was present every day up to a little more than three years ago.

Of course, there is in your career a path that is the path of the active serviceman, but there is also another path that comes next. And what comes next, comes early to you because the task has however a very significant burden. Therefore, it is very important for us to provide continuous support, which is on duty and beyond active duty.

It is also an expression of awareness and respect for your troops, the fact that we were able to provide a broader monthly food allowance. On the other hand, even those who are most exposed to risk receive today a better allowance than they used to. Likewise, the life insurance granted for the first time to servicemen who are part of flight crews, is a step forward. But it is still just one step, it’s not the end of a road which we are very determined to walk by taking other steps, one by one and according to the possibilities we are given, in order to increase the life quality of your families, and to increase the dignity of your troops, which does not relate only to what you give to the uniform, but relates to what the state, the government gives to your uniform.

The fact that the number of our servicemen in missions has increased by four times during the last three years shows how much weight, regardless of Albania’s modest size within NATO,  our army has in relation to the obligations of our society, derived from the Constitution, and in relation to our shared ambition for Albania definitely as a small country, but that is also dignified and serious in the international arena and in all its international commitments, where there is no question that our military is the most precious stone of the whole chain of these commitments.

I believe that the financial rewards also for missions abroad, combined with a general cleaning of the system, so much talked about until yesterday, of the merit in the army, are important steps forward, although not enough.

They are not enough because my belief is that in spite of everything that has been said and resaid, and doesn’t stop being said with regard to employees and civil servants of this state, who are unfairly pointed at, as if they were an army of corrupt people, the truth is completely different.

The corrupt employees within the army are not the majority, but they make everybody look alike, and this is very sad. On the other hand, regardless of what is said and resaid, it is first of all the employees of this state in all the sectors who are the first guarantors of our reforms, but they are also the first guarantors of the performance of Albania as a state, and of its institutions.

In this aspect it is very important not only for us to be aware – and we are aware – but to show this awareness as often and as concretely as possible by enhancing the quality of our approach to the sectors, and in this case, by enhancing the quality of our approach to the Armed Forces.

The ministers talked about the salary increase, and the salary increase for servicemen became somehow mysterious, but actually there is no mystery. We had a very open debate with the International Monetary Fund, as for the sake of truth, the IMF – which has positively assessed the whole progress of the reforms and all the significant improvement of the data of our finances and economy – would prefer with cold arithmetic logic that we didn’t increase nominally the wages this year either. Whereas I was and remain convinced of the opposite.

Not because of the coming elections, for I’ve heard that we are increasing salaries because there are elections next year. No, it doesn’t have to do with the elections. We are here at a venue where I don’t like at all to refer to the day-to-day politics. If I did, I would say despite the fact that salaries are or not increased, we know very well how these elections will end for us. Indeed, this has to do with the fact that the reforms are not and cannot be seen as exclusive means in the hand of the government.

When we say, and it’s true, that the reforms have costs and are painful, we talk about political costs whenever we refer to them, and they are ours. But if we talk about pain, the pain is of the people’s. The pain is yours as people who at the end of the day return home, and there are your children who need a teacher, there are your parents who need a doctor, there are your spouses who need your contribution. In the not quite easy environment created by the reforms, it is necessary to share the first results of the reforms precisely with you and with all those who support these reforms every day, for if we say that we want to build a serious state, the strength and mirror of this state is you, it is the police officers, it is the teachers and doctors, and so on. So, there is no mystery.

The only thing that I couldn’t stand and I cannot stand – actually the battle is not between me and the IMF, but it is between me and the IMF and the Minister of Finance to say it all (for we’re among us here, and nobody is going to spill it out. OK, there are the TV viewers, but since they watch me every day, they will change the channel by the end of this speech). So, I cannot stand that the salary of servicemen is increased less than the salary of police officers.

We have increased since the beginning the salary for police officers because you know very well that when we took office there was a widespread crime, although the noise about crime today is greater than it was, perhaps from the standpoint of noise, because today everybody thinks he is a journalist, a reporter, a publicist, a critic, a politician, just because he has the media in his pocket.

I remember that in 2013, throughout our campaign, wherever we went, everybody would beg us: “Please, free us from the criminals, the thugs and the bullies for they are suffocating us!”  The situation of the Police was much more dramatic than any other sectors, for the sake of truth, in terms of people, motivation, or their demoralization.

Now we are at a moment in between a 5-7% salary increase for the military which is in my view not enough, and a 8-10% increase that is parallel to the increase for all the others. Let’s say all others above, not all the others below.

This is the battle, and I am very hopeful that we will be able to arrange also this part for the servicemen at these levels, when we go from the budget discussion in principle to the budget discussion item by item within this period. Therefore, not to have an increase lower than that of the police officers, lower than that of teachers or doctors and nurses. Meanwhile, even here like in every other sector, those receiving the lowest wage – and here I’m talking about support services, for those who keep clean this wonderful complex and create the conditions for all of you working here to have a guaranteed hygiene – to have the salary increased 3.6% But we’re talking here about the other part. All this said, and hoping that I will have your understanding for what I tried to say in my speech, hence that for sure we have made very important steps forward, for sure we are in the conditions when we are really laying some foundations that would have had us talk about other things, had they been laid more than 20 years ago, – however all this is not enough for us to be pleased.

And if we entered a competition of discontent, I assure you that I would enter it to win and not to be ranked second, in relation to what the government, the governance, the majority, let alone politics, must do more and better because the challenge ahead is great. The challenge is not to make a better Albania than the one we had. The challenge is to make an Albania that is a worthy country for the next generation.

The challenge is not to repeat the fatal delay of these 10 and some years, by not making the reforms today, which are not for the next election but for the next generation. For had such reforms been done more than 20 years ago, only if you count the billions lost due to theft and chaos in the energy sector, there is no question that we would have built today all schools the and all the hospitals in Albania with the highest European standards. But if we consider every sector and the negative effects of not reforming the country, we understand very well what happened to the generation of those who are now 20-25 years old, and we should not allow the same happen to the next generation of those who are today 1, 2, 3, 5 years old and who must not find at the time when they make their decisions, an Albania like the one we found a little more than 3 years ago when we took on this task so important and so difficult.

I will conclude with this very impressive silence. I have met many people as you know, and I’m not comparing you with the rallies, for the rallies are another story, but I’m comparing you with the closed rooms of all kinds of social interest groups. I have never spoken before troops in a closed room, but the silence with which you follow the speech and echo of my own voice because of this silence, make me bow with much respect before you, because I know that this is not because I am here, but because it is an expression of the spirit of that discipline that makes the military special in every country of the world, but also of a discipline that I would like to see in the other sectors of the public service, but this will remain a dream not just of mine but of every Prime Minister of the next generation.

Many thanks!

Since we will not see before the season holidays, I assure you that you won’t be able to curse me in front of your family members during the celebrations, because I am convinced that even after this meeting I have all the arguments to win the battle for the difference I have with the Ministry of Finance and the International Monetary Fund.