“My watches were gifts from powerful friends,” Rama says: I registered them as state property — they are in the museum

In a video message addressed to Albanians, Prime Minister Edi Rama also spoke about the gifts he has received while in office, saying they were registered as property of the Albanian state.

Rama said that wealth, money or favors have not bent his conviction and that his goal, as he put it, is the transformation of Albania and the country’s integration into the European Union.

“My watches were abused against me — not by criminals, but by powerful friends. Unlike my predecessor, who devoured all the gifts, I registered them as property of the Albanian state. What comes to me as prime minister and what is due to me does not come for me to keep. I travel privately. Or my car is rented by the government, not the party.

“I say it again: surely I have my faults. I may have made more mistakes, but never have money, property or favors of any kind been able to bend my conviction that on this path I am here to give, not to take.

“I am here to make history, not to make wealth. I am here to transform Albania.

“I want it with its flag as high as possible, at the highest tables. I want it in the EU, with a judiciary independent of me and of every prime minister after me,” Rama said.