Salianji returns with the warning he made two years ago: From healthcare to ports and public assets, “You have treated Albania like a morsel”

For more than a month, the country has been facing massive protests that erupted after a citizen was assaulted in Zvërnec by the private guards of a security company. In this climate, debate has intensified day by day over the investments carried out by the Rama government over the years, including in recent years, with questions being raised about a lack of transparency and public consultation.

Strategic investments, PPPs and concessions have consistently been at the center of political clashes between the opposition and the majority in Parliament. One of the most frequently mentioned cases is the speech delivered by former Democratic Party MP Ervin Salianji, who in the parliamentary chamber listed a series of government investments, including those related to Sazan Island and the archaeological area of Butrint.

This reaction by Salianji dates back two years, to a period when these issues were mentioned far less and the discourse was dominated mainly by government propaganda, both on investments and on other topics such as PPPs in healthcare and poor results in education.

In his speech in Parliament, Salianji declared: “You have turned Albania into, and treated it like, a morsel that you are eating every day. Do you know how you are eating Albania? Sazan Island, untouched for hundreds of years, you are eating it for lunch, Edi Rama, because I do not know what the rest of you have left from lunch. That island serves thousands of people, and he comes and eats it for lunch. Butrint, untouched for thousands of years, you take it as a morsel. You discuss new ports here, about a 400 million euro investment, but what ports do you have today? You gave the Port of Limion to the oligarchs, the Port of Durrës, it is not known to whom, but you hid it behind Alabar, the Port of Vlorë likewise you gave away to build resorts, what ports does this state manage? You gave away the airports long ago and you have no other interest except making the airport look better, endless government advertising. The roads, a large part of which were built during the DP government, are no longer managed and are no longer free, you are making them paid roads, as you did with the ‘Nation’ road and as you have proposed for every other road. The education system, PISA. Albania’s education system is more crooked than the Leaning Tower of Pisa, that is how low you have brought it. What control do you have in healthcare? We have asked for four concessions to be investigated, three of them are at SPAK and all three produce no quality at all for the citizens’ healthcare system, they produce millions of lekë for the oligarchs and enrich a handful of people in this country.”