The leader of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, has stated that if the DP wins the May 11 elections, the new government will quintuple subsidies for farmers.
Berisha made the comments during a meeting with supporters in Lushnja, where he presented the Democratic Party's parliamentary candidates for the May 11 elections.
Also, Berisha said during his speech that Albania is a country where hundreds of thousands of families cannot properly feed their children, because according to the former prime minister, state money is stolen by corrupt government officials.
Excerpt from Berisha's speech:
Dear friends, the DP and the Alliance for a Greater Albania come to you with the best program, with a program that they have never presented before Albanians.
With the program that Albanians have never known, the program of Greater Albania.
I want to assure you that this program begins from the heart, the compassion of man.
Because we, in one way or another, are a country today, where hundreds and thousands of citizens shed cold tears of misery.
We are a country in which tens if not hundreds of thousands of families cannot properly feed their children because their money is stolen by the government.
Today we are a country where hundreds and thousands of sick people cannot take their medications.
Today we are a country where there are many families who set the table but do not have food for their children and are forced to say, "Let's go, take the roads, find our destiny." And the children just leave Albania.
Today we are the only country from which over 45 percent of Albanians left Albania, so we will start where the pain is.
We have decided that for 3 months, every Albanian who earns less than 200 euros will receive 200 euros. Every Albanian will not sign under 200 euros on the payroll of this country.
200 euros is not a lot, but by international standards, 200 euros is outside extreme poverty. That's 6.3 euros a day and someone who receives that much is not in extreme poverty.
But we put an end to the misery, to the counting of the morsels.
Not only with these, on the contrary, we will give all of them a consumer card. The consumer card means that they will buy food 20 percent cheaper than others with medium and high salaries.
All of these will have their medications reimbursed 100 percent.
Pensioners will have the right to free comprehensive tests twice a year.
The list of medicines will be identical, 1 to 1 with Italy. We are not compared to Italy, but we will be compared in medicines. A sick person in Albania will be treated with the same medicines that an Italian is treated with in Italy.
So, we will set some other standards because a terrible gap has been created between those who have and those who have not.
Minimum wages in Albania will under no circumstances be below 500 euros.
I guarantee entrepreneurs that the increase in employee salaries to 500 euros will be compensated with tax cuts.
There is a right that must be respected.
The average salary will be 1200 euros.
Teachers will reach a salary of 1,500 euros, while they will be paid more than any other teacher in the Balkans.
Energy will be sold to businesses for 6 lek out of the 18 lek it is sold to today. It will be sold to families for 7 lek.
The water tariff will be halved.
So, with these measures, we believe that we are making the lives of our citizens in need easier to a certain extent.
This is certainly not Great Albania, but Gandhi said that the greatness of a nation is measured by the attitude they have towards those in need.
And we will have a radical change in our attitude towards them.
There are no poor people due to laziness. Politics has made the poor poor and we will change this policy.
My friends, there is no district, no city, no region that can become more magnificent than the district of Fier, than the district of Lushnja.
Nature has made everything in this area magnificent.
Lushnja has extraordinary agricultural potential.
Lushnja has wonderful farmers, people who are capable of hard work and sweat.
Lushnja has some of the most beautiful tourist beaches.
It has every potential.
So, Made in Lushnja, Made in Albania, national pride, Lushnja pride.
My friends, no one can produce more than the peasant farmer if you remove from him the evils that the regime has done to him.
If you guarantee him the conditions for his sweat to yield the results, the success he deserves. And that's what we will do.
First, we will equalize it with other farmers in the region. We will subsidize it five times more.
We will increase the subsidy fund 5 times for each seedling, for field plants, for each production unit, for each head of livestock.
Yes, then let other farmers compare themselves to the Lushnja farmer and see who produces more and cheaper.
Lushnje will be the first.
Today, this regime, in order to open the doors to the destruction of agricultural production, has imposed asymmetric VAT on collectors and processors of products.
I give you my word that for the first three months, a symmetrical tax will be imposed, which will cause the processor to return to the farmer, so that he receives 20 percent VAT on the products he sells.
The Open Balkans, this agreement that destroyed thousands of farms, which brought about the flood of subsidized products 8 times more than the products in Albania due to the Rama-Vučić brotherhood, will be thrown in the trash in the first week of the DP's government.
A soft credit line, in which the government will pay 80 percent of the interest, will be offered to farmers in Lushnja and throughout Albania.
There is no more fertile land than Albanian land anywhere. This country has not a single inch of land without fruit.
The lands of Lushnja are becoming saline because there is no investment in anything.
Irrigation, drainage, and soil protection will be three major priorities of the next government.
Wherever there is overproduction in the world, disasters happen to cause damage. Even now, I was informed that the products have been damaged.
The government will have a compensation fund with the base price of all damages resulting from natural factors or overproduction and unsold stocks.
Although I tell you here, I declare here universally that we will protect your products in every season.
Every country does this, except Albania today.
Yes, we will protect them. Every country protects them. Except for Edi Rama who destroyed the crops. 2 thousand tons of potatoes rotted for a farmer in Pogradec because of the Open Balkans. Thousands of farms went bankrupt.
This ends. (A2 Televizion)
A2 CNN Livestream
MUND TE LEXONI GJITHASHTU
