"And you complain about the law and turn your back on me"/ The Prime Minister's full speech in Parliament

2025-11-19 12:37:00, Politikë CNA

"And you complain about the law and turn your back on me"/ The Prime

The Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, delivered his speech today at the plenary session regarding the 2026 draft budget.

In his speech, Rama spoke about the main objectives of the budget for next year.

Rama also mocked the opposition's opponents.

The full speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama

Yes, even if you complain about the law and turn your back on me, it's not okay, man.

However, thank you very much for this facilitation that you make of my speech because I prefer your back than your face and I want to say that I am deeply touched by the statement of Mr. Noka, who accused the Speaker of the Assembly of excessive loyalty to the party chairman, while Mr. Noka has a monopoly on loyalty to the party chairman and there is no competition authority that questions his monopoly. I will even call him Loyal Flamur Noka, so Niko is extremely far from you, Flamur, don't even worry about it, because in the history of Albania, only Shefqet Peçi can come close to you, while in the history of the world you are wheel to wheel with Lei Feng.

This is an opinion we can discuss, but I was also harassed by another MP.

Listen, you have to separate, you have to separate opinions from insults. One opinion, another insult, and you have to separate opinions from accusations. Another opinions, another accusations. Separate these and you are fine with the regulation.

While I was also harassed by the MP who I thank for standing in front of me, this shows that the law has not affected him and I want to tell him that yes, I was in Brussels and Albania opened all the chapters of the negotiations and since you asked me "what do they think about the fight against corruption in Albania", I will tell you that they think that corruption has never been fought in the history of this country, because if they did not think this, they would not open the chapters of the negotiations and in the meantime, you have not yet understood that in this country, things have been divided and as long as you continue to act as the "people's prosecutor" here, for as long as you will continue to be where you are and increasingly shrunken.

Now, of course, we are not here to discuss you, but since you annoy me every time I see you and that is why I come to you, so that I do not get annoyed, I said a few words about what you said. Meanwhile, I want to start with poverty and income, because it is precisely here in the relationship with poverty that lies the reason why we are in our 4th mandate today, and I want to start by quoting Eurostat, the European Statistical Institute. “Albania has a lower risk of poverty than Serbia, than Montenegro, than Bulgaria and than Turkey, and Albania is closer to the EU average in this respect.” Eurostat says this, I do not say it.

I am continuing with another serious source that is again not a government source, regarding the change in the weight of food in the budget of Albanian families, which was approximately 50% as a weight in the family budget when we took office and today is below 40%. Meanwhile, according to the Bank of Albania, not according to the Albanian government, the real disposable income of the Albanian family has increased by an average of 4%-5% per year, in the period 2021-2024 and I am closing with the International Monetary Fund which not far from a few days ago said that ''Albania is among the fastest growing economies in Europe, with prudent fiscal and monetary policies''. These are undoubted sources for their complete independence from the Albanian government and from the parliamentary majority in Albania. Meanwhile, I heard here that in Albania there is a corruption tax and that with the 450 million euros of incinerators, an aggressive increase in pensions could be made.

The problem is that this 450 million euros is simply the arithmetic of the one that I miss a lot, but which I remember through you, "7x7=42".

This finding does not appear anywhere in any of the files of a case that has been thoroughly investigated for many years, where neither 450 nor 45 appear anywhere, which means that your conscious or unconscious lies are dozens of times beyond reality.

Regarding the Llogora tunnel, I want to say that the 50 million is like the 450 million of incinerators and meanwhile, of course, that today, precisely because justice is independent, Albanians refer to justice and do not refer to those who want to make prosecutors of the streets and then when they go out on the streets, they are left with straw and grains, as they told me, that you had a couple of nights left.

And the last thing I have in this regard is the miserable ''song'' of agricultural funds. I want to tell Albanians that OLAF, which conducts investigations on behalf of the European Commission, for the year 2019 - 2023, has not found violations of the same nature as it has found in Albania only in these countries; Luxembourg, Malta, Cyprus, Ireland and the Netherlands, while the amount set by OLAF before other European Union countries from Italy to Greece, from Hungary to Portugal, from Bulgaria to Denmark and Estonia, from Poland to Romania is over 1 billion euros. 1 billion euros that in the opinion of the European Union's investigation office are mismanaged, so we must also get used to this aspect, because we are close to the European Union and we simply have to lower our heads, correct what we can and should correct and always be open to being corrected through not interfering or refusing audits or independent investigations, but through respecting them. This is also a reason why we have opened all the chapters, this is also a reason why Albanians trust us and not you.

In the meantime, this budget is a historic budget for the Socialist Party, because for the first time it addresses in a significant and sustainable way through a medium-term financial commitment of 1.7 billion euros the increase in pensioner support, and the good thing about this work that always comes in our favor is that words are fleeting, facts remain, and in the meantime, what people hear from the podium or from the tables of this parliament have the opportunity to confirm in the months and years to come, as everything we have said has been confirmed. So the more it is said that we are not increasing pensions, the more pensioners will be convinced that there is no other alternative in the Republic of Albania for them and their grandchildren except the Socialist Party of Albania.

We continue with Social Protection.

Social Protection today reaches 257 billion lekë with this budget or an increase of 11.6 billion, which in other words is 116 million euros. This amount for Social Protection, while on the one hand poverty decreases, on the other hand unemployment decreases, is more than double the protection that Albanians had when we took office.

Furthermore, pensioners are the main focus of this budget and will be the main focus of this mandate, but without forgetting those who continue to be in the economic assistance scheme, without forgetting beneficiaries such as people with disabilities, and without forgetting the necessity for a new approach and a new impetus in terms of housing, while remaining loyal to all young families, with the continuation of the baby bonus.

On the other hand, we are today in another year, with another budget and another fiscal package, but we remain faithfully steadfast in our position, that until 2029, small businesses will not pay profit tax and to those who talk about poverty and who talk about unemployment and who talk about taxes, I want to tell you that Albania has the highest level of business without VAT in all of Europe. Up to 100 thousand euros of turnover, businesses do not pay either profit tax or VAT, while up to 140 thousand euros they do not pay only profit tax and at this point we are without question, not only much higher in the entire region, in support of small business, but sometimes it suffices to tell you that the VAT threshold for small business in the neighboring country, North Macedonia, is 16 thousand euros.

On the other hand, another commitment made in the spring and maintained in this budget is the increase in the minimum wage, which as of January will be 500 euros and will continue to increase within the fourth mandate with the ambitious objective that by the end of this mandate, the minimum wage in Albania will be 700 euros.

There was talk here of a great pardon, it is true, it is a great pardon that through the "Fiscal Peace" will be given to all businesses, giving them the opportunity to close all old issues, further nurturing mutual trust and cooperation between businesses and the tax administration and facilitating the relationship between them, and also easing the administrative costs of businesses. Therefore, I invite all businesses to carefully read our fiscal package and refer to the forgiveness of tax liabilities that will be made in four forms;

- Complete cancellation of unpaid debts older than 10 years,

- 50% cancellation of obligations for the period of 5-10 years, if the remaining amount is paid immediately, with total cancellation of fines and interests.

-Writing off 25% of the obligations for the period of 5-10 years, if the remaining amount is paid in installments within the year, also with the cancellation of fines and interests.

-And the cancellation of fines has been delayed for a period of 1-5 years, provided that the tax and contribution for that period are paid in full.

Thus, businesses will not only be able to be relieved of this old burden, but will also be able to correct previous financial statements and statements. For the voluntarily corrected difference between the old and the new declaration, the profit tax will be only 5%. The enterprise can commit to increasing the taxable profit by 18% compared to the previous year and any profit above this level will be taxed at only 5%.

This is a new agreement, a meaningful agreement and a transparent agreement in order to strengthen the economy and, without question, also in order to facilitate companies and further grow the economy.

Furthermore, I want to say that in the meantime, the budget also makes another significant increase in salaries, since the increase in the minimum wage is not only an increase in the minimum wage itself, but it is also a push from below, upwards to increase salaries above and in fact, it should be remembered that we started with the exemption from tax on the salary of those who had a minimum wage of 300 euros. We then continued with those who received a minimum wage of 400 euros and today we will continue with those who have a salary of 500 euros. That makes up about 35% of the employed.

The minimum wage in Albania when we took office was only 175 euros. Today it is 500 euros, and in the meantime, we must keep in mind that the share of employees with minimum wage in the labor market has fallen from 60% to 14%, which indicates a continuous increase towards higher wages.

We have doubled the average salary in the private sector, which today is much higher than it was, and we have increased the average salary in the public sector to 1,000 euros, while the overall average salary is 840 euros.

For the first time, we will also introduce periodic salary indexation every two years for public administration, in order to continue to strengthen the family and support the increase in the standard of living.

We have also foreseen, for the first time, a differentiated salary increase to further support employees with lower salaries and to ensure a fairer distribution of compensation throughout the administration. Thus, 10,600 service workers, sanitation workers, drivers, technicians, activists, archivists, warehouse workers, and protocol officers will benefit from the increase in the minimum salary by 10,000 new lek per month.

Public administration specialists will benefit from 5 thousand new lek per month.

Teachers will benefit from 3 thousand new lek per month.

And in healthcare, for the first time, in addition to annual indexation, the calculation of seniority will also begin, which will increase the salary of a general practitioner, for example, from 131,700 lek to 143,500 lek.

Meanwhile, the salary of nurses will be increased from 87 thousand lek to 92 thousand 500 lek.

The same thing, in addition to indexing with increases for seniority, will be done for state police employees, who for the lowest ranks will have an average increase of 5,000 new leks per month, and then according to seniority for inspectors, from 80,500, the salary will go to 84,500, while the allowance will go to 100,000 leks.

Under the commissioners, 95,500 will go to 100,000 lek, with supplements it will go to 116,000 lek.

The commissioners today are at 105 thousand and the total will go to 125 thousand.

There are 130,000 ordinary managers today, and their salary will increase to 156,540 new lek.

The total cost of these measures in terms of administration is 100 million euros.

Furthermore, I want to emphasize something else because we are talking about taxes and we are talking about fiscal burden. I said it in terms of small business, but I also want to add that in terms of big business, completely different from what is said and propagated, we are the country that taxes those who earn more more. All other countries in the region tax big business less than Albania.

While precisely why, on the one hand, we tax those who earn more more, on the other hand, we tax those who earn less, i.e. small businesses, less than all the countries in the region.

On the other hand, I want to say something that is very important because there have been many kinds of words in the ether of social networks and in the propaganda stands against all these measures. It has been said that yes, pensions will increase, salaries will increase, but contributions will also increase. The truth is that the contribution rates that Albania applies are lower than the countries of the region, but we will not make any increase in contributions at this stage. So everyone should know that everything that we will increase in the family budget for pensioners, for administration employees and everything that will increase in the budget of families and public sector employees as a result of the increase in the minimum wage is only the result of economic growth.

I don't want to take too long, although I would love to continue this exclusive view that I have here. I don't like it, but it inspires me a lot, and so I always look at you with my face to the wall, only in good health, because we need you alive.

We have a massive budget for security, justice and order. Of course, it is a budget that is dictated by our inalienable obligations in two directions. The obligation in relation to our membership in NATO and the obligation in relation to the independent judiciary, whose independence is guaranteed only by the Socialist Party of Albania, and thus in the budget that we will approve we have a significant increase in support for both defense and justice.

I do not want to take up the time of other ministerial colleagues who will speak more directly regarding the specific aspects of the budget in each sector and will speak in detail, but I want to add one last element which is the new compensation scheme for farmers who are not subject to VAT. With this VAT compensation that will be carried out directly by the tax administration, I believe that we will give a significant push forward to the agricultural sector by directly supporting farmers and the reimbursement rate that we have set is the most competitive in the region and is set above the 5% to 8% levels of other countries, being at the 10% level.

In closing, I want to assure all those who follow us that Albania does not stop because we have entered a decisive phase. A decisive phase that yesterday received a new impetus in Brussels, where not only did we open all the chapters of the negotiations, but we were awarded the most positive grades precisely because not only have we strictly adhered to all the tasks and practically today we are in first place for fulfilling all those requirements foreseen by the new growth plan, the summit which will be held tomorrow or the day after here in Tirana and on the other hand, we are especially appreciated, precisely because we are cursed non-stop by those who are putting me in a very large debt today with this spectacular view that they are offering me, precisely for justice, precisely for the reform in justice, precisely for the independence of justice, precisely for the respect for that independence and precisely for the fact that if today Albania, for the first time in history, is fighting corruption; if today Albania, for the first time in history, is investigating without distinction; If today Albania, for the first time in history, has placed on the same level as the legislative and executive powers, the flag of the independence of the judicial power, this is not only the exclusive merit of the Socialist Party of Albania, but on the other hand, it is universally known that the Socialist Party of Albania is also the exclusive guarantor of that independence.

Imagine for just a moment how independent justice would be slammed against the wall by those who, for the moment and for a long time, will continue to slam only themselves.

Thank you very much!/CNA