French Ambassador to Albania Elisabeth Barsacq and her German homologue  Peter Zingraf were sitting in the first row of the invitees in the meeting organized by the Albanian government for the tax amnesty.

They listened to the Minister of Finances Delina Ibrahimi, deputy Prime Minister Arben Ahmetaj, and a UK barrister speaking about the amnesty, the specifics of the law, and benefits from the initiative.

However, as soon as Albanian Premier Edi Rama took the floor Mrs. Barsacq made a sign at Mr. Zingraf and both left the meeting simultaneously.

Rama was visibly upset for a while, then addressed to the ambassadors in their absence, asking for more respect for the country from the international partners.

“I’d like to tell our international partners that mutual respect is the alpha of our work. Any idea can be rejected politely, but treating Albania like a country with a tail when all the countries that lecture us have made amnesties regularly is neither fair nor the right thing”, said Rama.

The international partners have objected the idea of a tax amnesty in Albania because it would bring the risk of cleaning the crime and corruption money. Rama called the criticism of the US and German Chambers of Commerce as “dazibaos” and reminded them their countries have made tax amnesties too.