Yesterday, Prime Minister Edi Rama gave an interview to Sokol Balla of Top Story in which he made up the balance of this government during 2017. He discussed several topics, including drug cultivation, the Tahiri–Habilaj affair, and the election of Temporary Prosecutor General, giving all of these his own personal twist. Exit does a fact check.
Cannabization of the country
Prime Minister Rama relativized the problem of cannabis, saying that Albania is only a small part of a large European problem.
This claim ignores the fact that Albania is the largest producer and exporter of cannabis in Europe and that large parts of its territory have been employed for the cultivation of cannabis in a direct collaboration between criminal organizations and the police forces. Several police chiefs have been indicted, but remain at large. Numerous other police officers have appeared in secret service reports over the last year.
Prime Minister Rama also claimed he never denied the problem of cannabization, which, in fact, he has denied insistently. For example on September 26, 2016, he said the following during an interview with journalist Blendi Fevziu when asked about cannabis cultivation:
Are you serious? Are you serious or not? How do you so easily blame Albania for whatever you can find. I am saying this is shameful, this is very shameful.
The Temporary Prosecutor General
As he has been doing consistently over the last few weeks, the prime minister avoided any direct question about the constitutionality of the election of the Temporary Prosecutor General. He hid behind the EU and US by saying that they would never give the Prosecution Office to Edi Rama.
Lacking any substantial arguments, Edi Rama once again referred to the internationals, as he has done for the last 4 years whenever the cannabization of the country was brought up.
For example, on September 15, 2016, he said the following about the cannabization of the country in Parliament:
How is it possible that the US and EU who do not forgive issues that are much smaller than this can be so indifferent toward this cataclysm which you try to dumb down the Albanians every day? They haven’t said a word, a worry, not even spontaneously, that this phenomenon is becoming worrying in Albania. You haven’t heard it and don’t even wait to hear it.
Trying to offset Arta Marku’s one-sided elections with less than half of the votes in Parliament, Rama referred to the election of her predecessor, Adriatik Llalla.
He claimed that former Llalla had been elected with “100% of the votes of one side.” In fact, Llalla was elected in 2012 during a vote in which the Socialist Party abstained, not voting against Llalla but against the premature interruption of Prosecutor General Ina Rama’s mandate.
The people’s support for his government
Prime Minister Rama declared that according public opinion polls the support for his government has grown. According to these private numbers, he would win 78 seats if elections were held today. Meanwhile, it seems he did not take into account the record numbers of Albania leaving the country, preferring even a life of illegal immigration over living in poverty and unemployment.
About the Habilaj–Tahiri Affair
The prime minister continued his support for his former right hand Saimir Tahiri, stating that “the full investigation will be done and the arrest will be made when its proven that we are dealing with a proven guilt.” Apparently the prime minister does not understand that arrests are usually not made after a final court verdict, but in advance, when there is reasonable doubt. Parliament, at his instigation, refused to allow such an arrest to take place and to allow the prosecution of Tahiri just like any regular citizen.
Foreign direct investments
Sokol Balla confronted the prime minister with a declaration of opposition leader Lulzim Basha that together with North Korea Albania has been the only country in 2017 receiving no new foreign direct investments.
Rather than countering this claim with facts, such as an example of actual, concrete foreign direct investment, Prime Minister Rama attacked Basha personally and called him an artist who only lies.
