Berisha with diaspora in the US: Organized crime does not allow the rotation of power; 46% of Albanians have left in the last 10 years!

During a meeting with the Albanian diaspora in the US, Democratic Party leader Sali Berisha identified depopulation, the economy and the influence of organized crime as the main problems facing Albania.

Berisha said that more than 46% of Albanians have left the country over the past 10 years. He linked this phenomenon to what he called a “drug regime” and to the influence of drug money on the economy and institutions.

“Organized crime does not allow the rotation of power,” Berisha told the diaspora in the US: In the last 10 years, 46% of Albanians have left! America has taken the fight against the cartels seriously.

Berisha described the situation in the country as “among the most serious” in Albania’s history, focusing especially on mass emigration.

“In 10 years, as a result of that great evil that has befallen the country, more than 46% of Albanians are no longer in Albania,” Berisha declared.

According to him, the departure of the population is being accompanied by serious demographic and economic consequences. He also cited the country’s remote areas as an example, where Albanian residents and workers are absent, while the presence of foreign workers is increasing.

Berisha accused the government of allowing the creation of a system linked to organized crime and narcotics. Speaking about the elections, he said Albania is facing a system in which crime and corruption do not allow rotation.

“It appoints the ministers, appoints the police directors, appoints the officials, controls the elections. One of the most prominent representatives of the European Parliament, who led the team of European lawmakers observing the elections, told his colleagues in parliament that in Albania organized crime does not allow the rotation of power. And the truth is that this dictatorship, somewhat like the first one, has turned the elections into a farce,” Berisha said, calling on the diaspora to report the links between organized crime and those in power to their institutions.

Full speech:

Thank you for your extraordinary support and for your presence today at this joint meeting. I remain deeply appreciative and grateful.

With full confidence in the extraordinary role you have played in the past and will play now, so that we can overcome a situation at the national existential level, among the most serious ever recorded in history.

In 10 years, as a result of that great evil that has befallen the country, more than 46% of Albanians are no longer in Albania. Some of my friends have spent the past three or four days in the deepest parts of the Alps. What struck them? Well, where they would have expected to find workers, they found Filipinos, Egyptians and people of other nationalities.

Now, this regime in Tirana is different; it is not a totalitarian dictatorship. No, there are no concentration camps, no prisons, no firing squads. But this regime possesses a poisonous power unprecedented in our history, and that poisonous power is drugs. To understand its importance, I will tell you this much: in no country in the world over 10 years have the planet’s two most powerful currencies, the US dollar and the European euro, suffered such a dramatic decline—35% and 32%, respectively—as they have in Albania.

That is how much all the country’s exports have been devalued; thousands of businesses have been destroyed and gone bankrupt as a result. I am not even talking about the devaluation of the remittances and aid that you send to your people on this scale. So this extraordinary power, which is a global problem, cannot be said to be only an Albanian problem.

But in Albania, in the economy and finances, it has had a more destructive effect than in any other country. The euro has been devalued by 17% in Mexico, and the dollar by 12% in Mexico. I focused on this aspect so as not to mention the other aspect: that this nomenklatura, which controls these billions, makes decisions about everything.

It appoints the ministers, appoints the police directors, appoints the officials, controls the elections. One of the most prominent representatives of the European Parliament, who led the team of European lawmakers observing the elections, told his colleagues in parliament that in Albania organized crime does not allow the rotation of power. And the truth is that this dictatorship, somewhat like the first one, has turned the elections into a farce.

While I was speaking with my friend David Philips, to whom I am very grateful for all his friendly feelings toward Albanians in Albania and Kosovo, he asked me: What is the problem? The fundamental problem for us is presenting this devastating problem for Albania to our friends and partners as it really is. This regime, this autocratic dictatorship, is light-years away from a totalitarian one. Communication is not easy because it has extraordinary propaganda power and unlimited lobbying power.

I will not dwell on this any further, but your role and importance, each and every one of you, in presenting this reality to your representatives and to the officials of this country is the greatest help you can give Albania, and I believe you will give it.

You have done extraordinary work for Albania’s freedom and Kosovo’s liberation. But I must tell you here that over the past 10 years, because of the factors I mentioned, the number of Albanians who have left Albania is more than twice the number of Albanians who left Kosovo in implementation of Çubrillovitch’s platform, which had one aim, one purpose: the expulsion of Albanians from Albania. Today, under these same conditions, all of Albania has been turned into one man’s estate, where investment in rural Albania does not exist, where services have been destroyed just as the platform envisaged, municipalities and communes have been stripped away, and there has been unprecedented centralization.

How should we view this? We must—and we do—view it as an obligation to continue this battle with all our capabilities, and to thank God. Because if, when fighting the first one, you were 90% likely to end up in prison or have your grave dug, this second one gives you the opportunity to fight it. You may lose your job, you may suffer in various ways, but you will not suffer what you suffered under the first one. That is why we are determined to continue this battle. But my appeal to you as well, who have always been the nation’s most important diaspora with a very significant role, is to contribute and inspire friends. I am mentioning a few names here, such as Harri Bajraktari and Sergio Bytyçi; I would like to mention many others who, from the 1990s onward, did everything for Kosovo and Albania. A second task is to try to do everything, otherwise, if the demographic shock we have suffered is not stopped, a few decades from now we will be a minority in our own country.

There is never any room for pessimism. There is one very important thing: this US administration has taken the fight against the cartels very seriously, and this is a great stroke of luck. Therefore, we will do everything to restore the rule of law in Albania and Albanians’ rights to vote freely, rather than in an electoral farce.

I am very confident that your contribution will reflect the level of love you have for Albania and your patriotism, and I assure you that we, too, will do everything to break away from this great evil.

I am coming here on a visit after several years. I will do everything to present the reality of Albania to our main partner, and in fact I have great faith in the support and assistance of the United States, because in this case the interests of this country are also very substantial. Dear friends, Albanians today are the main transporters of cocaine from Latin America to Europe, by far surpassing the others, and all of this is part of the machinery of power.

So I consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to come and meet you, with the greatest confidence in your contribution to restoring the Constitution, the law and the basic rights of Albanians in Albania.