This is the train station in Tirana. More precisely, it is the former train station, because it has been gone for a decade.
The train is gone too.
Despite this, Prime Minister Edi Rama said today that protesters who have taken to the streets this week to demonstrate against him will not be allowed to travel abroad. They will not even be allowed to use a train that does not exist.
At a meeting with representatives of commercial banks, the prime minister turned the discussion into a monologue against the protests.
He threatened to punish protesters and described the demonstrations of recent days as “orchestrated violence.” He insisted that they were backed by domestic and foreign forces, organised crime, and anarchist groups.
Rama said the protests aim to destabilise Albania and Europe. He provided no concrete evidence to support these claims.
The prime minister announced that the government would invest in technology to identify masked protesters and add them to a special register.
According to him, these people would face restrictions on access to airports, be banned from entering hotels, and be prevented from travelling by train.
In fact, during European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s visit three years ago, Prime Minister Rama and Infrastructure Minister Belinda Balluku showed her the construction work on the new Tirana–Rinas–Durrës railway.
They said the railway would be completed in early 2024. Von der Leyen promised to return to Albania once it was finished, travel on the new train, and see the coast of Durrës.
The 39-kilometre railway was expected to cost €70 million. Half of the funding was to come from European Union grants, while the other half would be covered by a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
The railway was not completed in 2024. It is still unfinished today, and costs have doubled.
The railway now costs nearly €170 million because of additional expenses added by the government over the past three years. It still has no train station in Tirana.
The new station will cost Albanians twice: first, they paid for the demolition of the old station ten years ago, and now they will have to pay for a new one to be built in the future.
Yet the prime minister says he will stop protesters from travelling on a train that does not exist.
He also said he would prevent them from travelling to Europe and send the bill for any damage to their families.
According to the prime minister’s logic, these families will have to pay for damage to the facades of several state institutions, after already paying twice for the imaginary train station and covering around €100 million in additional costs for a railway that never gets finished.
But this is exactly the kind of government that Albanians are protesting against today.
They have already kicked the prime minister off the train to Europe, no matter how hard he tries to stop them from boarding a train that does not exist.
Shpërndaje te miqtë
