The government of Prime Minister Edi Rama will declare a state of emergency in Durrës and Tirana, the two counties that were most seriously affected by yesterday’s 6.3 earthquake.
Talking for nearly an hour during an extraordinary session of the Council of Ministers, Prime Minister Edi Rama declared:
We will declare the state of emergency based on the Constitution. As the Constitution and legislation clarify, considering the nature and magnitutes of the situation, it will be a state of emergency for the two most directly affected regions, Tirana and Durrës.
Prime Minister Rama didn’t waste the opportunity to attack his opponents, some of which yesterday had suggested that the Prime Minister refused to declare the state of emergency because of a lack of funds.
For those who don’t know this, the state of emergency is not simply a financial issue, but a string of measures. […] I don’t know whether those who preached the state of emergency are ready to subject themselves to these measures. The state of emergency, for a 30-day period, has possibilities and duties for those who have to govern it. Maybe that won’t please those who preached it, because it has been a theme with which they could do make politics, because Albania was in tears.
At the time of the Council of Ministers meeting, the natural disaster had claimed 24 victims and 657 wounded. 45 people have been rescued alive from collapsed building.
