Statement of Mr. Sali Berisha, Premier of the Albanian Democratic Party

Friday, November 4, 2022

In the UK, the media, Parliament, and the government are seriously concerned about the unprecedented influx of Albanian refugees crossing the Channel hoping for a better life in that country. During this year, about 12,000 Albanian citizens have entered the UK, compared to 800 in 2021.
Such a situation is undoubtedly a serious concern for every country and the related controversy is understandable and inevitable.
The Democratic Party rejects and denounces as irresponsible the declaration of Edi Rama, where he blamed the UK’s authorities for the situation created, pointing at the British conservatives as guilty.
The Democratic Party of Albania invites the UK’s Government, the Parliament, and the political parties to analyze the natural causes as to why the Albanians turned into “boat people” and realize that this is, in fact, due to the current government of Edi Rama.
The Democratic Party of Albania points out the root causes of Albania’s high emigration rate- according to EUROSTAT, about 744,417 Albanian citizens have emigrated from 2014 to 2021 to the European Union Member States, or 26% of the population, not including here the number of people who have emigrated to the United States, UK, Canada, and other European countries- are:

1. The fictitious voting of Albanian citizens under the massive election manipulation exerted by Edi Rama through the deployment of the old patronage system; using the state as electoral machinery; the massive acquisition of votes and the use of criminal gangs in electoral campaigns.
   With the fictional elections, Edi Rama has killed off the Albanian people’s hopes that power could be changed by voting. In 2022 only, just one year after the fictitious elections, the influx of refugees from Albania to the UK increased 15 times compared to one year before.
   The support Edi Rama is getting from the international mafia, in particular, his protector George Soros has devastating effects on Albanian democracy.
2. The reinstatement in Albania of absolute monism or single-party rule thanks to the fictitious vote. Today Edi Rama controls all powers in Albania, from the executive power, the legislative power, the constitutional institutions, such as the Presidency, the National Intelligence Service, etc. With the Soros reform, he is in full control of the justice system. In fact, he controls 10% more power than the last communist dictator Ramiz Alia in 1991. As for the Law Enforcement Index, according to the latest World Justice Project Report, Albania ranks four positions below communist Vietnam.
3. The tremendous connection of Edi Rama with the crimes and drugs has shifted Albania from a legal state to the first and only narco-State in Europe. According to a State Department Report, Albania has turned into the operational center of regional, European, and global criminal organizations.
4. The theft of public funds and assets; instating a corruption system in the country. The Supreme Audit Institution (SAI), a constitutional institution in charge of auditing budgetary expenditures, has proved that about EUR 8.2 billion was stolen and misappropriated in only 7 years, i.e., almost equal to 2 budgets. Therefore, due to the theft of public funds and the corruption system installed by Edi Rama, the public works in Albania cost 7 to 10 times more than in EU countries. For example, a 1 km highway in Albania costs EUR 24 million compared to only EUR 3 million in the European Union countries. Alternatively, constructing a school with state budget funds in Tirana costs 3 to 6 million EUR, while constructing a school with UNDP donor funds in Tirana costs 680,000 EUR.
5. Edi Rama assumed his office as a prime minister amid the OSCE presence in Tirana’s accusation of hiding 200 million EUR in offshore banks, while Edi Rama never reacted nor denied such accusations. As prime minister, he signed, in flagrant contravention of the country’s laws, EUR 430 million- contracts for three incinerators. Nowadays, no incinerator is operational.
6. As Albanian citizens have turned into “boat people”, Edi Rama is living as the most luxurious prime minister in Europe. He has made 137 charter jet trips, including trips to attend American football matches in Florida or costly vacations in Paris, etc. These trips alone cost 22 million EUR to Albanian taxpayers. He ordered a 4 million EUR wooden installation in the interior courtyard of the Prime Minister’s office that, apart from him and his guards, no one is watching.
7. The progressive impoverishment of Albanian citizens due to unrestrained corruption and the policies of Edi Rama and his Government are other major causes of the dramatic depopulation of Albania. In 2013, Albania had the highest average salary in the region, higher than Bulgaria, Romania, and the EU member states. Today, after 9 years of the corrupted governance of Edi Rama, they have the lowest salary in the region – 15-20% lower than Kosovo, while the prices of basic food products, according to EUROSTAT, are 7-10% higher than the EU member states’ average. Diesel is sold in Albania at almost the same price as in Switzerland and Germany. Finally, the international, political, monetary, and erotic corruption of official Tirana, which is trying to support politically a monist regime, plays a fundamental role in the mass emigration of Albanian citizens.
   The Democratic Party considers that the Albanian citizens leaving the country are the victims of a regime that does not allow them to vote as free citizens; a regime that is stealing and robbing them, that has turned their huge public assets into a curse for the citizens of this country and has replaced the legal state with the first and only Narco-State in Europe.
   The DP is committed to working hard for the Albanian citizens to vote freely and to return to Albania, the country of vast assets and endless resources, the country where Albanian citizens can build their dreams and the future they deserve.