Living on a minimum of 200 euros per month...

2025-04-13 17:15:00, Politikë Ardi Stefa

Living on a minimum of 200 euros per month...

I wonder if any of the ministers, MPs or political party leaders, who have been tiring us out for so many months by promising that they will live on 200 euros this term, will be able to do so. After all, they promise that they will set the minimum living wage or even the lowest pension.

And this is thought to be the figure that a person, whether working or retired, should live on.

Last night PD, today SP - the differences in the opening of the two campaigns
April 12, 19:53

That is, a person who has to pay rent, buy food and clothing, pay for electricity, water, medicine; go once in a while to have a coffee, put gas in the car, send their children to school, has to live on 200 euros...

Let's calculate whether this figure can cover basic human needs, considering where prices have gone and how much the cost of living has increased.

The DP election campaign begins / Berisha and the Democrats gather at "Mother Teresa" Square
April 11, 19:24

The accounts don't come out anywhere you turn them , especially for those people, who are the majority in Albania today and who are paid the basic salary, that is, around 400 euros, without insurance. The uncertainty that, far from it, something unexpected happens to their health or they lose their job and the monthly budget is blown up, is evident.

Socialist Party officially opens election campaign
April 12, 12:27

How much money does a couple with one child need per month, when both are paid the basic salary and when they hear about "free education", "free healthcare", which are actually so expensive?

At least in Vlora, (because Tirana is by far the most expensive) a 60-70 m2 apartment has a very high rent. They range from 200-300 euros in the suburban neighborhoods (more expensive when furnished), while in Lungomare, even when you find one, it ranges from 1000-1500 euros. And the contracts are not long-term, but the owner of the house can terminate the contract and ask you to leave whenever he feels like it. So we are at the stage where if you find a house for rent for 300 per month, you should consider yourself lucky.

Then the family has to eat, get dressed, pay for electricity and water. The child has to go to school. They need teaching aids, since they buy used books. They need uniforms, other extra payments for school security, heating, etc., etc. In case of illness, you don't have the opportunity to buy medicine or get tests, because medicine is very expensive and tests are now only done privately...

This is the reality we are talking about. Purchasing power on earth, well-being is not increasing, poverty is increasing...

And maybe people don't live on the streets, but their dreams are forbidden, despite working hard, sometimes even two jobs, and being deprived of even the smallest pleasures of life: a coffee or a lunch at a restaurant, a show at the cinema or theater, a...

And this is where the despair begins. Because they realize that with such income they have no future...

And then we say why they emigrate... And after a few years they ask them to return and promise them the sky and the stars...

Now imagine the misery of pensioners , who have become beggars...

All of this explains why as a society we have become one with low expectations, but also modest visions. In a country where numbers thrive, but not people, who survive and do not live.

High prices, low salaries and pensions/ The three biggest concerns of Albanians
January 3, 07:42

In a country where politicians, ministers and MPs of the ruling and opposition parties who receive 15-20 times more per month than the minimum living wage they promise, or who are paid more in a month than pensioners or marginalized groups can receive in a year, trumpet the minimum living wage as the main point of their program.
And when they say this, they hold grand rallies where the rent for video projectors, the musicians' fees, the lights and fireworks alone cost more than the annual payments of all pensioners or those who are paid the basic salary!

Living on a minimum of 200 euros per month...

Ridicule!

If even the proponents of the living wage were paid a basic salary of 400 euros per month for a period of time, perhaps they would understand what exactly they are proposing and trumpeting.

Maybe these words are populist, you might say.

But isn't it populism, even bad populism, the fact that some enjoy proposing and presenting to people in meetings the program point that will increase the average salary to 500 euros and the living minimum from 185 euros to 200 euros net per month?.../CNA