Tabaku: Privilege, clientelism and impunity are keeping the country’s economic model on its feet

Democratic Party MP Jorida Tabaku has reacted to the economic situation in Albania.

Through a post on social media, Tabaku stresses that the economic model built in the country has led to growing inequalities and distorted the functioning of the market.

According to her, the system operating today has favored a small group of people connected to those in power, while harming broader sections of society.

“Albania cannot build its future on an economy built on privilege, clientelism and impunity. Change is no longer just a political demand. It is an economic necessity,” Tabaku says, among other things.

Full statement:

For three consecutive weeks, thousands of Albanians have gathered in the square in the face of an economic system that has devalued their work, effort and income. This is a system that has not brought prosperity, but has enriched a minority. A system that has spread capillary-like through politics, turning Parliament from the institution that oversees the government into a notary of the decisions of an elite that thinks only about its own survival.

At the center of this civic revolt, the voluminous book “Albanian Files” became proof of what many Albanians had felt for years but had been unable to document. An attempt to fix the eyebrows ended up gouging out the eyes. With first-hand testimony, Albanians understood why today nearly twenty years of work are needed to buy a modest apartment, while prices in Tirana rival, and even surpass, those in cities like Milan, Berlin or Amsterdam.

This is not simply related to the real estate market. It is proof that the economy has been distorted by a model that does not produce value, but recycles money. A model in which the status of “strategic investor” has not been used to attract productive investment, but to create fiscal and administrative privileges. Tax exemptions, reduced VAT and accelerated procedures have become instruments that favor a single sector, while the real economy is left without support.

The link between power and dirty money does not stop only at the lands of Zvërnec or in the south of the country. It has now become part of the economic model itself. One need only look at where the government’s priorities have been concentrated.

Agriculture has been driven toward bankruptcy, as public support and financial instruments have been directed toward construction. The manufacturing industry is also losing competitiveness under the same model. Public procurement has turned into a mechanism in which Albanians’ taxes are used to compensate interests linked to this system. Foreign investment is becoming increasingly concentrated in real estate, while the sectors that bring technology, industry and value-added jobs remain only in strategies and documents.

None of this is accidental. Every system has its authors. There are those who design it, those who implement it and those who legitimize it.

The architect is the prime minister. The apparatus is the ministers. Meanwhile, the Socialist majority in Parliament has accepted playing the role of the political notary of this model.

Precisely for this reason, in the face of such a consolidated structure, the unity of citizens becomes vital. Albania needs not only political change, but also a full clarification of how this system was built. A full, transparent and unconditional parliamentary investigation must document institutional responsibilities, and every violation that emerges from this process must be referred to the justice system.

Albania cannot build its future on an economy based on privilege, clientelism and impunity. Change is no longer just a political demand. It is an economic, democratic and national necessity. This is demanded by the present, but above all by the future of this country.