German daily newspaper Bild has responded to Albanian Premier Edi Rama’s allegations of “being paid” by the opposition for their articles criticizing the government.

Peter Tiede, Bild’s politics chief-reporter, who wrote articles about Rama’s Socialist Party’s links to crime and votes buying, has published six recorded conversations that prove how local Socialist officials from the county of Durrës subject themselves to the head of a criminal clan in exchange of votes during the 2017 campaign.

“Drugs money is ruling the country. When Bild reported a little ago about a transcription where Prime Minister Edi Rama is heard asking a local elections official if things are as they have been arranged to be, the government was mad. ‘Bild is a bought newspaper, its claims are baseless’. The Albanian investigators too have confirmed the authenticity of the wiretaps”, Tiede writes.

“But now Bild brings to you the wiretaps to show how before the 2017 elections an infamous drugs baron buys votes for Rama’s Socialist Party. He ensures for a certain politician to become MP. We are showing six actual wiretaps”.

Tiede adds that “this case is only one of tens in the whole Albania. The majority is still under cover. The investigators of the cases have either been muted or have gone abroad”.

Below are the six recorded conversations published by Bild:

Wiretap no. 1:

Wiretap no. 2:

Wiretap no. 3:

Wiretap no. 4: 

Wiretap no. 5:

Wiretap no. 6: