Parliament debates government program

Not having official questions from the opposition, the Ministers answered to 26 questions made by the majority Parliament Members. The debates of the opposition are still on.

In this session the Parliament also elected the Vice Speaker, Edmond Spaho, proposed by the Democratic Party and elected with 99 votes out of 140.

Berisha: Majority started the era of ruin

The former Prime Minister Sali Berisha, in his first speech as just a Parliament Member, accused the majority of declaring the era of ruin for Albania.

Using harsh tones against the government and its leader, Berisha mentioned the achievements of his cabinet and accused Rama of having one only major objective: blocking Albania’s European Union integration.

As for the speech of Edi Rama one day ago in the Kosovo Parliament, Berisha declared that his biggest mistake was not mentioning the figure of Ibrahim Rugova.

Berisha declared that Rama has given empty promises that he will not be able to keep.

“He promised employment, lower prices, free health care and he will keep none of them. Can he establish order with Saimir Tahiri? Albania has no public order problems. Tahiri has connections with the biggest criminal bands in Albania”, Berisha declared.

According to him, the most important sector for the life of the Albanian citizens is the economy, and underlined that Rama and his progressive tax will fail it and damage the citizens’ life.

Braçe: There’s a national need to bring down this corrupted politics

The Socialist Parliament Member of the Fier District, Erjon Brace, accused the Albanian former Prime Minister, Sali Berisha, of establishing a republic of corruption and Rama will be obliged to have the mafia as adversary. He guarantees that the new government will undo corruption, and added that all abusive concessionary agreements signed by the Berisha government should be repealed, since the best cost is repealing the agreements rather then allowing the assets of our country to fall in the hands of the mafia.

“The Albanian government in the last two months tried to spread misunderstandings. They lied to the people. They say that our commitments will bring recession and disgrace. As if the Socialist Party was in power these eight years, and the Democratic Party in opposition. They also talk about a Greek crisis scenario, forgetting the punishment part. The truth is that we were in opposition for these eight years and the Democratic Party was in power. We still haven’t started working with the institutions. We will need to face the private state that they built. The Prime Minister and the Minister behave as a private operator with every businessman. This is corruption as a way of living. This is what we will do. We will bring down the private fatherland of the Prime Minister and will build your fatherland. There’s a national need to bring down this corrupted republic. The private economy that was established in Albania that imposed natural monopolies such as the National Lottery, CEZ, ARMO, agreements for oil, gas, forests, mines and pastures. The costs were paid by you, but the profits were taken by them. They also established monopolized services. There’s a national need to undo monopolies. The informal economy has 100 large companies that operate with their workers in this way, with the signature of the expert in the Prime Minister’s family. They made the organized crime grow in economy, entering strongly in the money laundering business. The government is under aggression with these agreements. We have a national need to undo crime in economy. Mr.Prime Minister, your ally is the people and your adversary is the mafia”, he declared.

Bregu: Rama, responsible for Albania’s blockage in the European Union path

The former Minister of Integration, Democratic Party Parliament Member Majlinda Bregu, mentioned th integration chapter and accused the Rama government of having no specific date for the integration project, and his are only words.

“There’s no date or number for the integration, there are only words. You cannot catch the European Union train with deadlines. Rama stopped this train for three years. Dear Prime Minister, you will be responsible for Albania’s blockage in the European Union. When the candidate status will be received, you will celebrate with champagne, but that will be a gift made ready for you, because all the criteria have been completed. You don’t say when this will be achieved. You fear any problematic regarding corruption and organized crime in your group?

I am making a denouncement today, to tell you that the fine that you imposed on the Albanian citizens is getting bigger. You are stealing from them at least 200 million EUR that will be needed for analyzes. You should either accept that you have stolen, or become real men of state and accept that you will continue to govern with solid documents received from your predecessors. The system has been established now and needs only to be continued, not to be created from scratch. How will you hire the public administration? According to the law for the civil employee status, or through recommendations from your party? When you will go to Brussels you will see a document that shows improvements compared to one year ago. This program certainly doesn’t have a first 100 days program, a first 300 days program, a budget or a cost. Since Rama will travel to Brussels this Monday, his path will be already paved down, same as the roads that have been paved throughout Albania, while you traveled to every village to lie to the people”, Bregu declared.

Patozi: Government has no program, but a last minute school report

The former Parliament Group leader of the Democratic Party, Astrit Patozi, listed the achievements of the former government and attacked the new government and the program presented by them.

“This government has no program, but a school report written in the last minute, something more than the file of Rexhep Mejdani, that turned into an anecdote. Rama has no intention to do anything serious for the state. Rama had no program, but he was clear in the hostile approach to the opposition. He didn’t lose any second to attack the opposition with an unseen rage. We are here to tell him that we are not scared from this government that has yet to be confirmed in Parliament. You see a government with two floors, with one of the floors waiting to be legalized for free, because that’s what the Prime Minister promised. There’s no room even for secretaries, with a large cabinet and six ministers more than the former government, and with increased number of departments. If all these ministers weren’t enough, they are now expected to be replaced by 20 Parliament Members, making it the most expensive of all times. They were too lazy to make the calculations, but we are talking about millions that will be taken from the Albanian taxpayers’ pockets. The government is made of people without experience in administration. None of them has anything to say, because the government has established the code of silence. The Albanians will now experience a private government, and this is an alarm bell that falls on whoever has years. We have tried all kinds of governments, and no matter how bad they were, they have always tried their best to be represented by good figures, but this government is not based on any political criteria of representation. You can tell that this is a private enterprise of Edi Rama, a big threat to the Albanians. It is a threat also for the Socialist Party, since now it is not represented. I believe that the idea ‘Ministers and not Parliament Members’ has been invented to expand this private company. Although this cabinet was born as a national threat, this is the government of Albania. However, this government will never have a curse from the opposition, not today and not on their last governing breath. We are determined to be vigilant and report every corruptive report and every attempt. We will mention the electoral campaign promises and will be the opposition of alternatives. May God bless Albania and its opposition. May God forgive this government, because they will not be able to avoid failures on their own”, Patozi declared.

Majko: Rama government cannot be compared to Papandreu’s. Berisha left a pile of debts

For the Socialist Parliament Member, Pandeli Majko, the opposition’s comparison to government Rama with that of Papandreu is unfounded, because the situation left by the former Albanian government cannot be compared with Greece.

“The new government has promised to resolve these problems with the four year program, but certainly that the difficulties are very huge, because we are facing a pile of debts. All large project that the right winged government has not completed for lack of funds, such as the Durres Kukes highway, Arber Road, and the failure of Albpetrol, have left a finance completely destabilized. Former owners and former political prisoners will have a dedicated program to end their problem. As regards the state administration, there’s a number of employees in the administration who have different preparation levels, bur are trained equally. The new government has the legal obligation to return to work everyone who have a court verdict, or a civilian commission verdict, after they were let go unfairly. This administraive reconstruction will come as result of the financial reform. Therefore, I ask the Minister of Finances, Sheklqim Cani, to receive the necessary support. The country’s finances left by the former government are dead. Hence, the new government is an emergency for our country. As an Parliament Member of Tirana I want to say that we need an immediate intervention to cure this social gangrene. The Albanian state is not taking its responsibilities for the emigration yet. If we do half of what other countries have done for their emigrants it would be much better. The new government led by Rama has a clear mandate to change things”, Majko declared.

Ministers present program

Some of the Ministers have presented the program personally and answered to the written questions made by the opposition Parliament Members. The first one to answer was the Health Minister, Ilir Beqja, who presented the policies of his department for this sector.

“Within 100 days, the hospital territories will be freed from private activities. Our goal is to make the state owned health care the only ervice that pays”, Beqja declared. Then the other ministers continued, each one with the respective details.

Edmond Haxhinasto, Minister of Transports and Infrastructure: We will realize all infrastructure projects. Our priorities will be investments for tourist areas in southern Albania, where there is room for air transport too.

Edmond Panariti, Minister of Agriculture: Agricultural policies will be oriented to develop the interior market, so that farmers’ work will not be in vain. The Myzeqe area is the depot of Albania, where we have the most intensive agricultural production and subventions will not be missing. They will also be oriented based on the result. The floods are a chronic problem and investments should be a priority of the ministry.

Shkëlqim Cani, Minister of Finances: The Social Insurance Institution is second hand. We will find a solution for the Albanian citizens to not get face bankruptcy when they are sick. There are dozens of billions of ALL of due payments that the outgone government has left on our lap. The budget situation is bad, but not hopeless. With the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund we will scan debts and will work to establish criteria and conditions for paying these obligations.

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