Rama on the Berat meeting: Poliçan’s collective stubbornness gave the debate its flavor

Prime Minister Edi Rama shared footage on Facebook from the meeting held this Sunday in the city of Berat. The meeting was part of the tour the prime minister is conducting to discuss the Territorial Reform.

He stressed that this reorganization does not undermine the provision of services in Poliçan, Dimal and other units, but aims at more efficient administration and greater opportunities for development and investment in the territory.

“Tell me what you think would be harmed if it becomes a municipality. When you tell me the road, when you tell me the service — these don’t change. Services will not leave Poliçan, Dimal or anywhere else. On the contrary, they won’t change. Compared to what you have, only one thing changes: you won’t have an elected mayor. The building doesn’t change, the staff doesn’t change, the number of services doesn’t change — in the sense that it won’t decrease; it must increase. You say distance? What does distance have to do with it? The services you receive today in Poliçan or Dimal, you will receive right there. So: municipality, city, administrative unit. And the city of Poliçan, the city of Dimal will have their own leader, will have their own councilors in the Berat municipal council, with quotas.”

“And tell me one more thing: are the communes better off today, or were they better off when they were separate? I’ve heard these conversations ‘year after year’ since the 2015 reform: ‘this will go away, that will go away; no, the distance; oh, how far Poliçan is, we are here in our commune; how far the center of Ura is, we are in our commune; we have this, we have that, we have the commune chairman…'”

“Did anything like that happen? Are communes today — have they received more investment than before, or less? Where did the communes’ investments come from? From themselves? They came from the merger,” he said during the meeting.

Rama also commented in his post on the debates that unfolded during the discussions, writing that the stubbornness of citizens from Poliçan and Dimal gave the meeting the flavor of a special confrontation.

“Today in Berat, where the collective stubbornness of Poliçan and the persistence of several well-prepared ladies from Dimal gave the discussion the flavor of a special confrontation,” Rama wrote on Facebook.

During the meeting, representatives from Poliçan asked to take the floor to present issues concerning their area.

During the discussion, the situation grew tense after Prime Minister Rama reacted to participants. The verbal clash continued with the mayor of Poliçan, Adriatik Zotkaj, as well as actress Egla Ceno.

The debate led the delegation from Poliçan to leave the hall, ending their participation in the hearing on the Territorial Reform in protest over how the meeting was conducted.