The Chairman of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, participated in the Congress of the European People's Parties (EPP) that took place in Valencia, Spain.
During his speech, Berisha called Prime Minister Edi Rama a 'narcodictator', while talking about the closure of TikTok, the arrest of opposition figures, the 'Beleri' and 'McGonigal' cases.
Berisha's full speech:
Mr. President Weber, ladies and gentlemen, first of all I would like to thank you, Mr. President, and the EPP presidents for the support you have given to the Democratic Party of Albania with a very valuable resolution in support of its just causes. But I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the IDU president, Stefan Harper, and the CDI president, Andres Pastrana, for the same support they have shown to the Democratic Party and its causes.
I would also like to thank friends from the CDU, Elmar Brok, Peter Beyer, Doris Pack, friends from Forza Italia in Italy, Battilocchio, Erika Mazzetti, etc., who have been by our side in some difficult days.
Ladies and gentlemen, Albania today is the first and only narco-state in Europe, where all power is in the hands of a single man. As international observers have noted, through a mafia-like vote-buying industry and a massive intimidation machine, he has put the will of the citizens under complete control and turned the elections into a facade.
The prime minister, who shows up at international summits in white sneakers and commits robberies, behaves like a full-fledged dictator in the country. He controls the entire economy. He controls the entire media. In the end, he blocked TikTok, making the country look like Kabul and Tehran.
Like Zayed of Tunisia, in an election year, he chose to arrest three leaders of the main opposition parties, just because they were political opponents – and without any, any, any criminal evidence. He took away the mandate from the opposition leaders. He took away the mandate from the opposition mayors, as in the case of Fredi Beleri, who is today an MEP, because the only reason was that Beleri refused to give him land that does not belong to the Rama family.
Ladies and gentlemen, in addition, the tyrannical dictator, the narco-dictator, has bribed the FBI's chief of counterintelligence, Charles McGonigal, to work against the Albanian opposition. He gave him $225,000, but I assure you that he was not the only one who was bribed against the opposition. Documents, thousands of documents from partner countries, prove today that the state and crime are a joint venture in my country.