The Albanian opposition has called on the government to focus its efforts on genuinely helping earthquake victims instead of the alleged propaganda it has employed so far.
In a Facebook post, Democratic Party leader Lulzim Basha called on the government to offer concrete help to earthquake victims, make transparency of donations, and make clear the team appointed to handle the relief and reconstruction plan and their responsibilities.
Basha wrote that more than two weeks after the earthquake, many families have been provided no help. He also denounced the distribution of aid along political party lines – “for friends and relatives”.
“If it weren’t for the help of volunteers, many families wouldn’t even have bread for their children.”
He added that the earthquake had revealed “the true Albania, which is poor and robbed.”
“[The earthquake] revealed the incompetency and abuses of the government, which has devoted all attention to facades and projects for 10 oligarchs.”
The opposition leader wrote that in the third week after the earthquake, the government has not yet identified the number of damaged apartments, number of inhabitable ones, number of citizens left homeless, how many of them have been provided shelter, and it has not made public which buildings they have decided to demolish.
“It is alarming that while residents testify that the [building] inspection experts have not come to them, and they are living in the open sky, the government does not take any action, but only shows, only jokes, only mockery of the disaster. This is unacceptable! This is a mockery of the poorest citizens in Europe.”
