The leader of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, from Puka declared that “May 11 is a day for a decisive turning point for Albanians to place their dreams in Albania.”
“It is a day for a decisive turning point for these young people to build their Albanian dream in Albania. It is a day for the entire nation for millions of Albanians who left Albania during these 10 years to return, to come to build their dream in Albania and to set Albania on the path to its greatness. My friends, May 11 is a victory not only for the opposition, for the coalition for a Greater Albania, but it is a victory for every Albanian who says dignity, dignity. It is a victory for every Albanian who will not cry every day with cold tears of misery from the great poverty into which the theft of the government has plunged him.
It is a victory for every democrat, socialist, non-partisan who believes that in this country one can live with dignity. That the wealth of this country can enrich the citizens of Puka and all of Albania. My friends, these 12 years were the years of a very difficult, very undeserved. In 2013, the people of Pukija, the Albanians, did not have high salaries, but they had higher salaries than the other 6 nations of the region. They had higher salaries than the Romanians and Bulgarians.
In these 10 years, they surpassed us 3 times in pensions and surpassed us about twice in salaries. But not only that, this is only one dark side of the coin of this government. The other side of this coin is just as dark, that these men and women, with these pensions and salaries, the lowest in the region, have to go to the shops to buy goods at the most expensive prices.
During these 10 years, the price of food doubled. And today, to buy what they bought in 2013, a pensioner with a pension of 143 thousand lek, should have a pension of 390 thousand lek”, said Berisha, writes A2.
“So they should have a minimum pension 2 and a half times higher. Likewise the low-wage earner. Likewise the wage earner with an average salary. What happened? How did we fall this way? Why did others surpass us with pensions three times? Why does a Montenegrin who received a pension of 138 thousand lek in 2013, i.e. lower than an Albanian, receive a pension of 450 thousand lek today? Why does a Macedonian who received a pension of 130 thousand lek in 2013 receive a pension of 330 thousand lek today? Why does a Serb, who received a pension of less than 140 thousand lek in 2013, receive a pension of 405 thousand lek today? Why is this? How is it possible?
There is only one reason. The governments of these countries first return the money to those who take it from them, to their citizens. They return it with salaries, pensions, economic aid and services. I invite every socialist, every non-partisan to listen to us. Let’s go back to Albania for a moment. What happened in January of this year when the 8 billion euro budget came to parliament? Edi Rama, immersed with his ministers in unimaginable theft and corruption, had the heartlessness to allocate 8 billion euros to 760 thousand gray-haired, elderly women and men, a total of 16 million. And when we demanded that the law on the minimum living wage be voted on, he said, this leads us to the abyss. What abyss did the heartless man get into?
Why didn’t Montenegro fall into the abyss when it tripled pensions? Why didn’t Macedonia, Kosovo or Serbia fall into the abyss? Why didn’t we fall into the abyss when we increased pensions from 36 thousand lek to 82 thousand lek? “Why didn’t we fall into the abyss when we increased average pensions by 60 percent and maximum pensions by 40 percent? Why didn’t we fall into the abyss when we doubled the salaries of teachers, doctors and nurses,” Berisha added.
