TIRANA, Oct. 1 – Citizens have the right to demand things from the government and remove it from office if it doesn’t respond properly, U.S. Ambassador Doland Lu has told a group of Albanian youth this week.
It was, according to Albanian analysts, one of the strongest statements yet, that the United States would not put up with the newly-powerful Socialist-led government of Prime Minister Edi Rama violating Albanian citizens’ rights or act against public intersts.
Speaking at an event for Rrà«shen Youth Town Hall Meeting over the weekend, Ambassador Lu said that big changes are coming for Albania and youths have an important role to play in Albania’s future.
“I firmly believe Albania will join the European Union in the next decade. All of you, your children and grandchildren will live as full citizens of Europe with all the rights and privileges of EU membership,” Lu said. “This change and many others are coming. Don’t miss your opportunity to be part of them.”
Lu said that the best thing about Albania’s young generation is that it is not tied down by the low expectations of this country’s communist past.
“You demand jobs like they have in Germany. You expect laws against corruption like they have in the UK. And you insist on personal freedoms like they have in the U.S.,” he said. “You live in a democracy. If you demand it, your government must respond. Or you will throw them out.”
Giving as an example the demands of many for free books for students, Lu said, that it is reasonable for citizens to ask that the government provide money to buy books for its students.
“And when the government tells you it cannot afford it, you need to ask how they are paying for their fancy government buildings, their luxury cars and their foreign trips,” he said.
He reminded Albanians that as a democracy, the responsibility and the power lies with the voters.
Following Ambassador Lu’s remarks, main opposition Democratic Party leader Lulzim Basha said he was happy to hear the comments, adding Albanian youths should indeed demand more from their government.
Basha said that the government of Prime Minister Rama had spent $16 million on luxurious office furniture, airplane tickets and trip allowances, but had no money to give children free used textbooks to go to school.
Basha said DP would introduce legislation to parliament to offer free textbooks for all pre-university pupils.
Free textbooks which are returned and reused at the end of the year is a common practice in many advanced countries.
