The Socialist Party opened its electoral campaign for the May 11 elections today at Skanderbeg Square in the capital, where Prime Minister Edi Rama was also present.
All regions made a special presentation, accompanied by traditional songs and dances, where their respective political leaders also spoke.
There were 12 stars in the square, symbolizing the 12 stars of the European Union, as Prime Minister Rama's key campaign promise is the country's membership in the EU.
During his speech, Rama asked Albanians to vote for the SP on May 11, with the aim of the country's membership in the European Union.
The leading socialist did not spare attacks and ironies towards the main opposition leader Sali Berisha and the American strategist of the Democratic Party of Albania, Chriss LaCivita.
Describing Berisha as a swamp owl, Rama said that LaCivita is on his side, as according to the prime minister, he has taken money from the leader of the DP.
Rama also said with irony that LaCivita's arrival reminds him of the neighborhood strongmen when the palace guard would call him and ask for help when others were harassing him.
The full speech of the Socialist leader Edi Rama:
It was destined that our fate would bring us to such a final confrontation with our arduous history, giving us, the Albanians of the third decade of the 21st century, the chance to change the course of history forever.
Right here, right now, right at the crossroads between a pair of political elections, for the party that will govern for four years, and a historic opportunity, for Albania that in just four years can become a lady member of the united European family. We, only we and no one else have the European destiny of Albania in our hands and we have only 30 days ahead, to join hands with every Albanian, every Albanian who loves the lady of Albania in the EU salon, and herself an equal citizen of Europe.
That is why our gathering today, here in this square, where the stoic witness and guide stands, the image of our national prophet, riding the horse of Albanian history, is different from all other times.
A European thinker once said:
"If it is true, as the Quran itself affirms, that God has given every people a prophet in its own language, Albania had in Skanderbeg, the prophet of its independence, the hero who sowed the seeds of greatness and happy destinies of his nation."
And here beneath our feet, the hundreds and thousands of plaques of the square that bears the prophet's name recount the long shadow of our Albanian being from one corner of the country to the other, but also beyond;
the land soaked with the blood, tears, and sweat of Albanians over the many centuries of their existence;
the manly dignity and maternal charm of this land;
They narrate a martyred piece of Europe's body, witness to unheard-of horrors and unparalleled renewals from one corner of the continent to the other, and beyond.
About 100 years ago, a European traveler wrote that although a few hours of sailing separated Italy from Albania, as you landed on its shores you would have bet that this country was not Europe, but Asia.
"If you said that Albania is in Asia, every professor would give you a zero grade in geography, but a sense of reality would have given you a 10," he says.
But time willed it, our great destiny willed it, that in this Skanderbeg Square, the navel of the motherland and the jewel of our European capital, polished like a stone that has fallen from the stars and unspoiled like a sea sailed by history, we would have the historic chance to take the final step towards unification with Europe and the irrevocable separation from Asia.
For us, here today, the representatives of the socialist and progressive people of Albania, the final ascent towards Europe and the end of our history outside of it begins.
Before us is only one date, May 11, as close as thirty mornings, and behind it is only one mandate, as long as four years, to win the historic bet with Europe for Albania and with Albania for Europe.
Don't forget, for this bet, on two sides of the same coin, the Albanians and the Arbëror have thrown everything they had, since on the soil of this continent, in the middle of Adriatic Europe, in Dalmatia, what Father Gjergj Fishta called "our language is masculine", was loudly demonstrated.
The documentary account of this little-talked-about event has epic, not to mention biblical, overtones.
During a July of the forgotten year 1284, someone left this message to European memory:
"I heard a voice thundering on the mountains in the Albanian language" (Audivi unam vocem, clamantem in monte in lingua albanesca).
“I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness,” the Bible says;
"Plot the paths and sift the obstacles for the steps that penetrate history from above," says the biblical Prophet.
Oh, how beautiful are the steps upon the mountains, it is said somewhere in the Holy Book, the steps of the one who brings good news, proclaims peace and salvation.
Well, right from the mountains, more than 700 years ago, the thunderous voice of the Arbëror was heard over the blue sea of the Adriatic and the Mediterranean, proclaiming to Europe that they were the ancient tree of its garden and the ever-fresh sprout among its aging nations.
I am not taking you by the hand today to immerse you in legends, but to follow along with you on a final march towards the Promised Land of Europe, our national prophet; to become one with the European destiny that he on horseback defined as ours, and that later our Renaissance men, the heroes of independence and all the wars of Albanian patriotic thought, confirmed as a trust through an endless odyssey of vicissitudes, the conquest of mountains and seas; and today fate has chosen us to give the final push to the stone of independence, freedom and equality before the law, not letting it roll down again, like Sisyphus' stone, but placing it once and for all at the corner of the European building; where together we will also raise the most beautiful flag in the world.
If you think about it, there is no other people in the Balkans like the Arbërori, like the Albanians, who in endless and exhausting centuries, have been stuck like an ascetic on top of a cliff to survive everything and everyone, often against all predictions, therefore there is no other nation in the Balkans more identified with the feeling of belonging to Europe, that Europe, where, as the Renaissance people went on the flag of our national prophecy, the sun rises from where it sets rather than this nation than this people.
By giving itself entirely to that very Europe, and by feeling its own in its entirety, no matter how many times Europe did not feel its own, Albania, Albania, has been able to hide within itself for centuries its Western essence, to preserve it throughout every persecution, every retreat or escape towards the East, to bring it alive from the most savage isolation that the communist world has known and to turn it into the most unstoppable force of its reunification with Europe, starting individually when the Albanians entered the sea on foot and through them we were inspired and saw that just like each of them, our Albania can emerge nationally through today's European state-building. A unique, even almost irrational case in history and the completely confused mosaic of Balkan geopolitics.
The Albanian people gave generously to build Europe, even when Europe itself was drowning in disbelief; a people considered indifferent to any belief, amidst thousands of hardships, the Albanians learned to believe in great depth because they learned to hope despite every loss of hope.
And it is that thundering voice over the mountains, the first existential cry to witness the Arbëror in body and soul in the middle of Europe, which in the following century, on two occasions, echoes in the chronicles of very old times once again, like a voice in the desert, to say that the Arbëror, in the midst of the great battles between the West and the East, were the only autochthonous people on whom the ancestors of today's Europe could rely to triumph without being disappointed.
In 1308 and 1332, monks and scribes who history has recorded as anonymous, as if they had come into existence only to echo the Albanian miracle in the midst of Balkan strife, wrote with unparalleled enthusiasm that this people could hardly wait to show solidarity with Westerners, to become part of their struggles and ideals, whenever the hand of faith and brotherhood was extended to them.
And with that thundering voice in the mountains, for the fourth time, our prophet George, makes it clear in the 15th century to that Europe driven into regression, into guilty self-denial and into concessions that the price for being part of the family to which he belongs, the Arbëror sets himself: not as a darling of fate, nor as a mercenary; but as a slave of virtue and as a fanatic determined to be a heavy stone in his place.
"The eye is sharp and the heart is barren," another Gjergj, Father Fishta, would say.
Today is the day, this is the month divided between April and May, this is the decade of the arrival of Albania's European destiny right in our hands, when like never before, since we emerged from communist hell, the European Union has gone beyond words, has gone beyond promises and has opened the big door for us and has given us a deadline to close the negotiations and sign the agreement for our entry into that dream home: 2027.
Well, precisely in this year 2025, which, among other things, is a jubilee and sacred year worldwide, when the rumblings and threats of war at the gates of Europe and the new geopolitical turmoil warn of times with great challenges ahead, we Albanians cannot miss the encounter with history for Kujtim Gjuzi's mustache.
Because no matter how comical it may seem, this is the truth, meeting history or getting under Kujtim Gjuzi's mustache.
Today is the day and this month divided between April and May is the time for us to start not the next electoral campaign, but the great assembly of the mountains and the fields, of the cities and the villages, of Albanians and Albanians, beyond the left and the right, beyond the party barricades and old customs, for our beloved Albania, in the great hall of the United European Family.
As united and as aware as possible of the fate that has come our way, but not forever, because encounters with history do not wait and cannot be postponed at our pleasure, because we have other things to do, we must go down the open road of fate without prejudice towards each other and without temptations for the next stupidity, if we want to put an end to the history of a people unjustly left as second-rate, and hand over to our children and to all generations to come, a country within the borders of the European Union, where there is no longer any difference between Albanians, Italians, Greeks or Germans, and not only no more difference, but no more chance to see Albanians from above.
Albania today is nowhere the same as it was when we took office, in no area or anywhere else, except in the swamp of the opposition and the media surrounding it, where for the sake of truth the situation today is even worse than when we took office.
But there is no doubt that Albania today will not be anywhere near the same as Albania 2030 in the European Union. In no field or direction, and perhaps even the opposition swamp will have dried up by then, but this is the only thing that is in the hands of the minority and not the majority of Albanians.
Albania 2030 will be a new Albania, a country with a different position and power, as a member state of a large family of freedoms, rights and opportunities that we do not yet have today, and that we cannot have tomorrow, without becoming part of that family.
In that family, the individual freedom of Albanians, which no one should ever take for granted and given once and for all, will never be called into question, by any government, no matter what, here in Albania, because whoever enters that house can no longer play the fool with its own citizens.
Therefore, even in that family, no one can question the equality before the law for its citizens, which we, the socialists and progressives of Albania, have brought for the first time as a real, concrete, current development, in Albanian life, where there has never been equality before the law nor independent justice since 1912, therefore, since 1912 until a few years ago, there has never been, in any case, an individual vested with political power who has been investigated, tried or convicted by prosecutors and courts independent of the government.
But, the Albanian people cannot leave equality before the law in the hands of governments and government leaders here, they must take it into their own hands, defend it with all the strength of their will, starting from May 11, where the choice is not between a few parties, but between Albania 2030, in the EU and Albania straight into the pit again, with us or with the magnificent swamp and the flying carpet sellers of the small swamp bazaar around it, which also have some very funny names; no it can't be done,
Only Albania 2030 in the EU definitively secures, without any possibility of reversal, the foundation of equality before the law that the Socialist Party of Albania had the courage to lay, and until we, the Albanians, enter the great main salon of European Albania, only Albanians united with me and you, can protect the new justice from any destructive attempt of the swamp;
can close negotiations with the EU within two years;
can increase the gross national product, which when we took office was less than 10 billion euros, from 25 billion euros today to 35 billion euros;
they can increase per capita income, which was only 3,000 euros or so when we took office, from the approximately 10,400 euros that it is today to at least 15,000 euros;
they can increase the average salary in the public sector, we found 372 euros from the 1000 euros we have today to at least 1200 euros;
or the average general salary, which was 322 euros, could be increased from 830 euros, which is today
at least 1000 euros;
without forgetting pensions and pensioners, who we are very aware deserve more than everyone else and have benefited the least from everyone else, therefore also for pensions,
for all contributors to the scheme, they will rise to an average of 400 euros, while we will aim to raise the minimum to 200 euros.
Or the minimum wage, which was 157 euros, we tell them they can raise it with their vote for us, they can raise it from January 2026 from 400 euros to 500 euros and in Albania by 2030 we can have it up to 650 euros.
But voting for Albania 2030 in the EU means investing in a new Albania in financial terms as well, because by sitting at the big table of the united European family, Albania will have, thanks to the common family treasury, an extra solidarity budget every year.
In other words, if in these years, we have received from the EU something more than 1 billion Euros, of which 90% are loans and only 10% are grants, money forgiven, when Albania sits at that table it will receive the same amount, i.e. 1 billion and a half euros every year! And it doesn't end here, because when we are members of the EU, 90% of that amount will be grants, i.e. money forgiven and only 10% will be loans.
For the countryside alone, for farmers and ranchers, the EU has given us much less than 200 million euros in all these years, but in Albania 2030, when we become its members, we will receive 300 million euros per year just for the countryside and agriculture.
Do you understand, Albanians, sisters and brothers, wherever you are, how historic the May 11 election is in every aspect, from national security, to the rule of law equally for all, and to economic and social well-being?
The EU passport for Albanians is not another travel document, but a new citizenship status for us as residents, among the oldest of this continent, who perhaps like no one else on this continent have gone from pit to pit, and have never given in to despair, but have given in only to this dream that finally, here is the sky opened to us and the star of fate has aligned with the stars of Europe; just like in the old dream of Aeneas, who before bidding farewell to Helen, the son of Priam and Andromache in Butrint, in the vision of civilization that would bring prosperity to other lands – in Europe – sees brothers in spirit and love, ancient peoples who will build a single Ilion and become a single reality.
The Albanian EU passport is our national and European dignity that becomes unquestionable by anyone; it is the dignity of the Albanians of Europe, those in Greece come to mind first, who with the EU passport will no longer need any document of recognition from the state there of their legal existence in Greece, starting from the recognition of the endless years of work and what work will be done automatically as soon as they receive the non-Greek, Albanian EU passport because their pension is recognized as EU citizens.
The dignity of our children, wherever they are, with an Albanian passport, who will no longer be foreigners in the territory of the EU, but will enjoy the same rights and privileges, just like other pupils and students of EU countries;
the dignity of every Albanian man and woman, who when traveling to the EU will no longer be stopped by any policeman and will no longer enter any queue of black sheep at any entry point into the EU to account for where they are going, who invited them, how much money they have with them, how long they will stay and then, without even entering, when they will leave because the EU will no longer be theirs, the EU will be Albania and Albania will be the EU;
The dignity of anyone with that passport will be able to stay wherever they want in the EU, look for work wherever they want within the EU perimeter, and will have the same rights and privileges as any other EU citizen, benefiting from the same social security system and, in case of need,
The swamp says that our EU membership is not a priority and that it will happen on its own, but according to the swamp, the priority is Bufi's return to power for the third time, since in the previous two times he did not destroy and then ruin Albania sufficiently.
For this priority, Bufi has brought with who knows how much money, who knows where he found it, even a Latif from America, who Latif, for all of us who grew up in the neighborhoods of Tirana, reminds us exactly of that neighborhood strongman who used to shout under the palace, "Come on Latif, they're going to beat me up."
Latifi yesterday published an owl eating a mouse and raised the question: who is the mouse?
Well done to him, because finding fools who pay you all that money to applaud you even when you've got them into that kind of religion for nothing is truly like being born with a shirt on.
There is no question that Bufi is Bufi, but there are many candidates for the mouse, from the poor Luli who forgot that he was a mouse and behaved like a bear, to the poor guy from Kavaja, the winner of the Tirana primaries, who believed in Bufi as a human being and Bufi treated him like he was just a mouse.
This is the story of the swamp, the owl, and the mice. But our story is different.
I want to greet here, in a special way, Zamira, the dean of economics of Vlora, who understood that she no longer had what she wanted and no longer belonged in that camp, and as a Vlora resident who could not play the role of a mouse and came and joined us, representing Vlora today in our national team of May 11, and she came not only but with many young men and women of the Vlora DP Forum, who, Vlora residents and those, could not stand in line to become mice and the example of Vlora of the Vlora democrats, is the example that Vlora historically gives to Albania because for unknown reasons Vlora is the one that saw and feels the smell of history, therefore other democratic women and girls, because strangely enough they are women and girls, you understand, even the boys of the youth forum came because they came with their girlfriends, but in fact they have shown themselves to be smart boys, women and democratic girls are approaching us and joining us from other circles
which I assure you will never regret, while democratic men should continue to reflect, just don't say we didn't tell you: run away before you suffer like a rat.
Dear fellow citizens who follow us today from this blessed square,
I make a call to you, Albanians, I make a call to you from this square, which has no other flags, except the most beautiful flag in the world and the flag of the most beautiful dream in the world, to come together, just like the five fingers of this hand, to give tomorrow the color of Albania's European destiny, precisely in the week of our victory that will close, in this square, from Europe itself, which on May 16, for the first time in history, will raise the tent under the shadow of the prophet, and in that tent all the leaders of the peoples of the democratic European continent will sit around a large table.
So, let's leave this time, let's leave it for other times, after this time at least, the party trenches, let's forget this time the party fan shirts, let's rise this time all together, to the height of the encounter with history, which has come to our door, and let's never, in any way, allow the open gate of the Great House of United Europe to close due to our distraction from the defined goal of Albania's destiny, ever since that man up there, on horseback, left his prophecy for generations.
Only by realizing this national prophecy, which has been translated into tens, hundreds, thousands of texts written by the fighters of Albanian thought, for which time does not wait and does not accept, will we be at the right height for history, only by bringing that trust to fruition, will we be worthy of the fathers who gave us the name, gave us the alphabet, gave us the flag and gave us Albania and will finally deserve, - because if you think about it, many of those who have taken this country hostage and returned it from Asia did not deserve it - and we will deserve their joy, which is expressed more beautifully than anywhere else in the words of Gjergj Fishta again:
"How did you come to the Albanian's mind,
Again to enjoy vital freedom.
Legacy left to him by the First:
And how much blood and sweat there was,
How many lies and betrayals were there?
Until the duel of Albania is mine,
As God had promised. »
And then comes the chilling sentence "Forgive me, Shqypni, you who know my soul"...
Believe this prophecy, sisters and brothers, believe this prophecy Albanians and Albanians, with other convictions and directions, believe this different moment because it is different, not for us and not for you, but it is different for our common Albania and join our majority, believe Albania 2030 in the EU and abandon the false prophets, and abandon the ridiculous beings, those who preach ridiculous grandeurs or offer folk remedies for your troubles and problems, which we can only solve together and only united to be at the height of the history of Albania with Europe and of Europe with Albania.
Today is the time for this high faith. It is a very high faith, more than ever today is the day, the day that Naimi saw and rejoiced when he sang:
"How true! Why are you so quiet?"
For Albania, good days are coming.
"Darkness is coming, Blessed is he who lives, To see you, my lady!"
And lady, Albania is made when we, its sons and daughters, place on its head the crown with 12 stars, which the European flag lent to the crown of Our Lady high in the sky, that Our Lady, mother of pilgrims who hope, who as the patroness of Albania is celebrated precisely this month, just as the people traditionally celebrate, this same month, the birth of Saint George of the Albanians.
May George of the Kastriots, the Father of the Albanians, be our protection and guide in our European pilgrimage, and may the Mother of the Albanians bring us Good Counsel and blessing for our mission and holy pilgrimage towards the promised land, there in that house where our corner awaits us.
Long live Albania like all of Europe!
Long live the Europe of all Albanians! (A2 Televizion)
A2 CNN Livestream
MUND TE LEXONI GJITHASHTU
