The protest called by the Democratic Party on December 8th aim to be the
start of early elections, according to DP leader Lulzim Basha, in an
interview for Top Channel.
He believes that a massive participation this Tuesday will open the way for the creation of an interim government. Journalist Elona Meco interviewed Mr.Basha.
Top-Channel: You have promised a protest on December 8th, a symbolic day. But you say this is not just a symbolic protest. You say that this protest will serve to bring down the government. How can a government be overthrown with a protest?
Lulzim Basha: The December 8th protest is the beginning of the confrontation without return that will remove the Rama government. A massive participation in this protest of those who don’t’ accept anymore the government of Edi Rama and his robbers to represent their interests is the best message that the days of this government are over. The retired people have nothing to expect anymore from them. The unemployed, students, businessmen. A confrontation without return with this bad governing which has brought back a new type of dictatorship. This is the dictatorship of crime, corruption, injustice, poverty and arrogance. There is no more reason to wait. This is the time to sign the “de jure” decline of this government, which has already fallen “de facto” in the eyes of the Albanian people. We can give a new chance to all Albanians to chose another path, with a free and fair votes.
Top-Channel: Your tone reminds me of Edi Rama in the opposition. But he was unable to make early elections. How can you make possible an interim government.
Lulzim Basha: The question is if the government of Edi Rama is able to organize free and honest elections. The answer is that this government has no chance for free and honest elections. That is why we need a interim government that should start implementing the decriminalization law. Secondly, together with the political parties, we need to give free and fair elections to our country, so that the Albanian citizens can chose from the offers and programs of the political parties, and not from massive purchased votes.
Top-Channel: When has there been an interim government in Albania? Once in 1991 and once in 1997. For the first one there were syndicates. For the second there were guns in Albania. We are not on those conditions today. How have you imagined the creation of an interim government?
Lulzim Basha: What we are saying is very clear. We are not telling them ‘leave so we can take power’. We are offering to the Albanian people the chance to vote once again. It is clear that the worst starts with the biggest lies, through which this government came to power. It is their pact with crime and the corruption that came as result of the Rama-Meta pact. This chapter is closed. Despite what Edi Rama or Ilir Meta want, the Albanian people are massively disappointed today. They are In despair and feel abandoned by this government. My duty here, as the opposition is to tell the Albanian citizens that there are other ways besides leaving the country. It is a duty of every free man to take the fate of his family and himself on his own hands, before admitting a fate that has not been given to him by good, but by the government. December 8th is an example. That’s why there is no comparison of the situation today with what Edi Rama was evoking. The coming of Edi Rama in power with a package of lies is the essence of the problem, that’s why he cannot offer a solution today. We offer solution. We have vision and determination to take the country out of this pit.
Top-Channel: Do you feel powerful enough as opposition leader? I mean to earn the citizens’ trust?
Lulzim Basha: This is an ongoing process. Earning the citizens’ trust is not an abstract process. It is measured by the battle between the opposition and its achievements. If the opposition fights a righteous battle, such as that of decriminalization, and wins, this is a huge moment of national and international trust for the opposition. If the opposition fights the battle against high taxes, which we see as the ruin of economy and that encourage informality, and then we have Ben Blushi and others like him from the majority who speak as if they were in opposition. This is a huge inspiration. An opposition that inspires the adversary. An opposition that inspires the Prime Minister himself, who doesn’t know what he is copying in his chaotic escape. This means that the opposition has been and will be on the right track. What doesn’t go well with this country is the government, and this means that our solutions are real solutions. This is the time for this real solutions, rather than having them copied by an ignorant, arrogant, without any concept for the rule of law, the economy and the European future of the country. It is now time to have them implemented by a new generation of politicians, by mixing the bext experience through the years, which is the Democratic Party. A team ready to take the responsibilities given by citizens.
Top-Channel: When you look for early elections and an interim government, have you imagined when this might happen?
Lulzim Basha: Certainly that the political request is to have it realized as soon as possible. If we had the numbers, we would have brought this government months ago. But numbers are not everything. Citizens are everything. They decide with their participation on December 8th. With the full democratic dynamics of the protest, on December 8th they will give the right message to this government.
Top-Channel: What will happen on December 9th?
Lulzim Basha: The confrontation continues.
Top-Channel: Not the protest?
Lulzim Basha: The confrontation will continue until the government admits the reality that they are no more legitimate representatives of the Albanian citizens.
Top-Channel: You say that the government doesn’t hear you or the citizens. I believe that the government will continue to not listen to you and the citizens, based on your words…
Lulzim Basha: A government facing a people that is raising, with massive disobedience from north to south, is a fallen government. It is a matter of days or time until it falls legally.
Top-Channel: Maybe you have higher expectancies of the Albanian people for early elections. Because, so far, they haven’t started any civilian disobedience…
Lulzim Basha: This is the time for the Albanian people to behave like Europeans. If a government humiliates them, robs them, it deserves the entire people to rise against them. And the solution is to take this government down, early elections, so that the Albanian people can be free to vote, without fear, without bribes, and find the right way to leave the crisis.
Top-Channel: Does this mean that your key word for an interim government is the participation of people in protests? Not only in this protest, but also others, maybe?
Lulzim Basha: The participation of the people on December 8th is the first and most important message that will be given to the country and to this government. The message is that this government is over. It is up to the government what they will do with this signal, but we will keep insisting. On December 8th, during the entire day. On december 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th. Until the government understand that they represent the interests of a group of people who are getting their pockets thicker through the Albanian people, and the Albanian people don’t want this government anymore but they are determined to go towards early elections.
Top-Channel: Isn’t it a bit early for this request, since the justice reform is ahead?
Lulzim Basha: There is no chance to have with this government a justice reform of the standards Albania deserves, of the standards that international partners request. This is a government that is threatening justice. They want to violate it, and they have even withheld it, such as with the Constitutional Court. There is no chance for this government to fulfill the expectancies of the citizens, of the opposition, the international partners. The political solution we offer through early elections, through a legitimate majority that comes directly from votes that are not threatened or intimidated, not purchased, is the safest investment for a justice reform that the Albanian people want and deserves. A justice that is not politically corrupted.
Top-Channel: You didn’t say if the international partners are supporting the early elections. I have heard they asked you vote the justice reform.
Lulzim Basha: This is an unfair simplification. They want our involvement in a process. Thee is no package yet for the opposition to vote. There is a request for our participation and we have participated. The process we have ahead is problematic and with very unknown situations. We are dealing with a government and Prime Minister whose priority is to manipulate justice, to pressure it and no reform justice.
Top-Channel: We should see the next Parliamentary session to see what can be done with the justice reform?
Lulzim Basha: There is nothing to wait for. We should wait for December 8th to tell give the Albanian people the chance to chose once again a new path, because the path they chose on June 23rd took them to an abyss.
Top-Channel: What are the chances for this scenario top take place?
Lulzim Basha: You remember the arrogance of the Prime Minister when he was speaking about 1 million slaps from 1 million voters? It is the time for all the disappointed Albanian citizens, abandoned by this Prime Minister who saw them from the beginning as slaps to us and not problems to be resolved. It is time for students to make their balance and ask if they are happy with the higher education. If this law is not accepted, they must come in the December 8th protest. It is time for the retired people who will not receive any bonus payment by the end of the year. Are they happy with the conditions that were created? Or are they worse? They must come in the December 8th protest. The unemployed have even more difficulties to find new jobs than two years ago. Those who live with the daily uncertainty of losing their jobs. People who receive bad service from a health system deteriorated by the corruption of the chief robber of the Health system, Ilir Beqja, and the boss of his financial affairs, Edi Rama. The crime that has been tied with the persons who intermediates for crime, the Interior Minister. This situation has no need for explanations. Better than my words and the rports that we have made daily, with facts and arguments, this has been expressed by citizens. But the citizens also need a solution, a platform of solutions. And the opposition offers the paltform of popular protest on December 8th, with the purpose to find a political solution through an interim government and early elections.
Top-Channel: Thank you.
Lulzim Basha: Thank you.
Top Channel
