"We have not eradicated corruption"/ Rama mocks the opposition: We have no one in front of us, they are roaring at us from behind

2026-04-08 16:46:00, Politikë CNA

"We have not eradicated corruption"/ Rama mocks the opposition: We

Prime Minister Edi Rama was present today at the Socialist Party Assembly in Lezha. During his speech, Rama stated that the country's economy has grown and as a result, salaries and pensions have also increased.

He further stated that pensions are on a path of annual growth. Among other things, he added that the number of tourists has also increased, as has the number of investments.

"Fate has brought us, God, call it what you will, to have this burden, to see this process through to the end. The Albanian people have also given us 83 mandates to tell us: here you have it, see this process through to the end. And we cannot allow this process to be taken hostage for anything else that is in the hands of the Albanians. We need to own the field and we need to move things forward and we have many things that we should really feel good about. I'll give you some of them. We took the economy of this country with less than 10 billion in gross domestic product. Today, as we speak, we have brought it to nearly 27 billion. We want to bring it to 35 billion in 2030.

Before I came here, I was also at the Lezha hospital. We were there with all the ward heads. I understand the Democrats by sight, but there I am telling you that everything has changed from an infrastructure point of view and today they have dignified salaries, they have recognized seniority in the job, they also have annual salary indexation and they told me with all their might that the Lezha hospital has become attractive even for young doctors. Salaries in Albania have increased and are increasing continuously in the private sector. It is no longer a question of how much I will pay for what I need, but simply where I will find what I need for the work I need. And the same goes for pensions. We have known that it was the weakest point, the weakest link in the entire social skeleton of Albania and of course, having great support from pensioners, we have always been aware that something definitely had to be done for pensioners, but we have not had the opportunity to do it.

The economy did not allow us to take it on and do it, but if we managed to do it and now pensions have entered the path of annual growth. We have taken Albania with 2 million or so tourists, where we were counted as tourists and I and Pjerini. Every time we returned from a trip, they counted us as tourists. Even the foreign man who was prime minister counted himself as a tourist when he returned and said 2 million or so tourists. Even foreign investments of 300-400 million euros per year. We have reached 12 million tourists and we have exceeded 1.5 billion foreign investments , "says Rama.

During his speech, Rama did not spare any irony towards the opposition, saying that they create "a lot of noise" by saying that there is corruption in the country. He added that corruption has not been eradicated but is now at the lowest levels ever.

"Now all those who - I can't say they have confronted us, - that we have no one in front of us, to be honest. We have behind us all these who are thundering against us and who are creating a very big noise: corruption, corruption, corruption. Now I am not saying that we have eradicated corruption, but I am saying one thing that I can prove in several ways: that first, never before has Albania fought corruption like in this phase. And second, corruption is lower than ever before.

The noise is louder, of course, and it is louder also from the war, that everything is amplified in all the ways of misinformation, but it is definitely also from the result. The question is, how can there be an increase in corruption and an increase in salaries at the same time? This does not happen in countries with increasing corruption. How can there be an increase in corruption and an increase in pensions at the same time? Because salaries and pensions increase because revenues in the state budget increase. Corruption is presumed to absorb revenues from the state budget and take them into a few pockets. So, these two do not go together. How can there be an increase in corruption and, at the same time, the number of beneficiaries from public competitions increase? These are all things that do not go together.

"Just as, it is not disputed that man is built in such a way that he quickly forgets the bad, while he loves the good even more. But, if we look back and remember the time when to pay for the lights you had to stand in line, to pay taxes you had to stand in line and to get a birth certificate you had to stand in line, while today you do all these things by phone, then how has corruption increased?" said the Prime Minister. /CNA