Prime Minister Edi Rama has responded to Florian Haçkaj, head of “Diaspora for a Free Albania,” regarding the protest which, according to the article, has been continuing for more than 28 days.
Rama said that his mandate stems from an agreement with the Albanian people and that this contract, as he put it, runs until 2029.
Të lidhura
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Florian Haçkaj: Hey Rama, you filthy man, we have kept our ethics all this time, and then you go write in the “Financial Times,” telling Albanians “f**k you.” Who the hell are you, you piece of trash?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: They brought me this boy’s video and, before I heard the insults, I noticed his outrage. I immediately looked into who he was. A 24-karat Democrat, the grandson of an honorable Democrat, as well as a professional for whom I have mutual respect. The truth is that I did not direct that expression at Albanians in any way. That is clearly visible in the article as well. When the journalist asked me how I respond to those who accuse me of being the godfather of the government, I briefly gave that word for someone who has been attacking me relentlessly for years, trying to smear me and bury me without providing any evidence. Out of an hour of free conversation, he chose precisely that sentence. I, however, do not regret it.
Florian Haçkaj: Do you understand that I, the one speaking here, rose up when my late father, who was among the most honorable and well-known people in Tirana and Albania, passed away in Vienna from liver cancer, because the healthcare system, at the level you left it, was treating him for an ulcer, you piece of trash.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: I truly felt sorry and, before responding, I sought information about the case. This boy’s late father, according to the data, never once appeared at any public hospital in Albania, but was initially treated at a private hospital, around ten years ago. The boy has been swept far away by the wave of the boulevard’s imaginary revolution, while political hatred and algorithmic fury have driven him to publicly make me the guilty one. After ten years, when his father was not cured in Tirana of liver cancer and lost his life in Vienna, the story returns to be used as “cannon fodder.”
Florian Haçkaj: And like my father, there are thousands of Albanians who suffer, who make a spectacle of themselves around the world, because healthcare is at the point where you have left it in these 13 years of governing. Because you have stolen all the money.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Here he goes even further, claiming that thousands upon thousands of Albanians, according to him, die on the roads of the world because I supposedly brought healthcare to the point of death during these 13 years. In fact, the transformation of the last decade in this sector has been epochal, greater than that of all the previous years combined, and it is not I who say this, but the facts. As for me personally, I say that healthcare still needs much more.
Florian Haçkaj: And you have the nerve to tell the people “fuck you”? Well, the people told you long ago: may you get what your doorstep can bear. Don’t mess with the people, don’t run your mouth. Leave as soon as possible. Enough mocking people. Enough lynching people one by one.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: No, not the people, not at all. Neither this boy nor those who were offended by that word, while accusing me and insulting me without restraint, are the people and they cannot speak in its name. The people speak for themselves when the time comes; they have spoken when the day came and they will speak again when their turn comes. As for people one by one, no one has been lynched, but they have been confronted with facts in order to be exposed as socially dangerous individuals or as unscrupulous manipulators, not with slander and not with insults like these low street words, which are becoming the norm today and which in this case even shame the late father.
Florian Haçkaj: It is shameful that a prime minister still in office would put out those videos, those photos of private individuals, who have a thousand troubles.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: We are not talking about private videos or photos of private individuals, but about public material of individuals with many faces, who do not have 1001 troubles but all kinds of agendas to manipulate the public, by lying and even believing their own lies, just like this boy here.
Florian Haçkaj: You get on the helicopter, you and your family. And people like you, the leaders of the state, get on the plane and are treated abroad. So shut your mouths. At least do not take it to this level, because you will make it personal with every person who is there.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: I do not know who you are confusing me with, but I myself have been hospitalized twice and have undergone two procedures on my body at the state hospital. Meanwhile, my family has never, never, never used helicopters, planes or state funds, neither in hardship nor for pleasure. Every private trip of ours has been paid for from the family budget, always in economy class.
Florian Haçkaj: Now is the time for you to resign and for citizens to take Albania into their own hands, as it should be, an Albania without corruption, where citizens should not have to go to every corner of the world to get treatment, because you have left medicine at this point.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: No, no. No, because I have a contract with another party, with the sovereign people of Albania, and I have signed with them until 2029. I want to tell all those who are sincere and who do not have parties or money behind them to fuel this protest that I do not confuse their concerns, troubles and anger with these undignified characters who disgrace our public square. But, as soon as a very great evil with many heads, which has seized the protest by the throat, is neutralized, without any doubt I will address the meaningful part of the people, regardless of which side they come from, who seek to be heard. I will tell them what I have understood from this need of theirs to protest and how I think those internal and sincere reasons that call them toward protest, toward the need to be heard, as well as toward admiration for those who protest on their behalf precisely for this reason, should be addressed.
