Election promises focusing on employment

TIRANA, March 19 – The campaign for the June 23 elections is focusing on the economy and employment as main topics — particularly from the two large parties — the Democratic Party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha and the main opposition Socialist Party of Edi Rama.
It was first Rama who brought about the figure of 300,000 new jobs created in the next four years after they come to power. He has explained that more jobs will come with a lower of the personal income tax level and a fairer distribution of the taxation among the companies operating in the country, especially those small and medium-sized.
That seemed to have forced Berisha to turn to employment figures, saying he had been successful in creating jobs. Formally, Albania says it has roughly a 13 percent unemployment which is less than 200,000 persons.
The opposition says the number of unemployed is closer to 1 million.
Berisha pledged that the Democratic Party government will create around 250,000 jobs across the country in the next four years, in what could be its third mandate. He said that the country has been successful in maintaining economic growth, and that will be its main tool to serve in the next mandate as a major grower of employment.
“The next four years will be a testimony of the greatest reduction of unemployment, with the government creating around 250,000 jobs across the country,” Berisha said.
If pledges from both political sides will be, or become true that practically means that there will be no unemployment left in the country. It also means that this tiny western Balkan country will flourish so much and turn into a big success story to be followed by all the big western democracies that are suffering so much from the financial crisis.