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Ditari i Opozitës

Berisha: Within the first year of government, we will increase subsidies for villages 5 times

Politiko 2025-04-16 18:31:45

Berisha: Within the first year of government, we will increase subsidies for

The Chairman of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, held a meeting with the residents of Unit 15 in Tirana, where he also introduced the candidates for MPs of the Alliance for a Greater Albania. In his speech from Vaqarri, Berisha emphasized that 'the village deserves the same infrastructure as a city neighborhood'.

He has promised from Unit 15 in Tirana that within the first year of the Democrats' government, subsidies for villages and farmers will increase.

Berisha : We established a subsidy system and you are witnesses that olives, production, cattle, cows and so on were subsidized. All of these were completely removed. It is unimaginable that wherever I go, villagers tell me that not a single kilometer of road has been paved in our area.
It is a total disregard, a total exclusion, while you, all of you without exception, on every glass of water you drink, on every bite you eat, pay the 20% VAT tax, you paid it in the store when you bought it.
So your taxes did not return a single penny to you.
What is our program? Our program is money to the citizen. Very simple.
Very simple. We will return the money to the citizen and I guarantee that our project for the village will continue with great intensity.
But as you have probably heard, we start from what we call, the compassionate heart. We start with those who are in misery, in extreme poverty.
We start with those who receive, as you said here, 70-80-100 thousand lek, even though they have spent their whole lives working.
And we have that every Albanian, in the village or in the city, wherever they are, will receive the living minimum of 200 euros per capita. Whatever the pension in the village is below 200 euros, it will be 200 euros and this will happen in the first 3 months of our government.
Not only that, but there will be a consumer card that gives him the opportunity to get back 20% VAT on those expenses he makes for basic food and goods he buys.
I assure you that, the sale in the markets of Albania, of any medicine whether for people, for the land, or for livestock that is not traded in two EU countries, will be banned and severely punished.
We will start with some basic things that give us security, dignity. That if you treat someone else, who has spent his life working and you tell them, you get 16 million euros for 760 thousand pensioners, you mock them cynically.
But why do others have somewhere to get it and you have nowhere to get it. Why does the Prime Minister of Kosovo give 100 million euros for pensioners and has half of Albania's pensioners and half of Albania's budget.
What happened? In 2013, the average pension in Albania was 143 thousand lek.
The average pension in Montenegro was 138 thousand lek. Today the average pension in Montenegro is 450 thousand lek.
But how did they increase, how did this come about. Of course, the Prime Minister of Montenegro took money from the budget and put it for pensioners. He didn't tell them that this is the fund and stick with it.
No one does this, we didn't do it.
You are witnesses. We came, we found the minimum pension in the village is 36 thousand lek. We increased it by 82 thousand lek, took it from the budget and put it in the pension fund. And we will take it again and put it in the pension fund.
What else happens to you?
Subsidies. Every state, absolutely every state subsidizes the farmer, gives him cash for what he plants, what he harvests, for the livestock he raises, for the seedlings he plants.
And no state loses from this. No. They turn into production, welfare, they turn into families, for society.
This subsidy only opened the borders for Serbia with the 'Open Balkans' because he said the truck is waiting for so much, nonsense that is. And the goods of Sumadija, the products of Banat, which have at least 8 times more subsidies than Albania, flood into Albania.
Of course, the Albanian farmer with a farmer who is subsidized 8 times more, whoever he is, cannot afford it. He gets it at a much higher price.
He did the other thing too. He imposed an asymmetric VAT on the collectors so that they would buy imported products and not domestic ones.
And now, these caused thousands of quintals and tons of goods in the country to rot and farmers to stop planting, to leave, to go bankrupt.
Thousands of farms, thousands of greenhouses. Agricultural production has fallen.
What are we going to do?
In our first year here, I give you my word that we will raise the subsidy for you to the level of Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia, a level that is 5 times greater than today.
We will subsidize every seedling you plant.
We will subsidize every cow, sheep or goat.
We will subsidize every unit of production you get from your land.
The tax for collectors ends, it will be symmetrical both in sales and purchases, which means you will get back the VAT on sales and the wholesalers will not get it.
You will get it because it is yours. So this is a completely different system.
For us, there is no developed Albania without a developed village.
There is no developed Albania with an abandoned village.
There is no land more fertile than the land of Albania, it is one of the best that exists.
Others turn desert into fertile land.
These turn fertile land into desert. This is the truth.