Flooding Drama / Rama’s Double Standards. In 2010: Floods caused by poor governance - Today: The government bears no responsibility

Prime Minister Edi Rama has not cut short his luxury travels to be with residents affected by the recent floods. While still on the plane, the prime minister chose to blame the weather and accuse the opposition of politicizing the situation, instead of standing alongside flooded communities. Yet while today he points fingers from the air, 12 years ago he not only attacked the government but also presented Albanians with his own plan to prevent such floods, through investments, including river and vegetation moratoriums.

Prime Minister Edi Rama was traveling on luxury trips while thousands of Albanians were submerged by floodwaters. The city of Durrës was flooded as never before, despite €31 million allegedly misused in recent years specifically to prevent flooding in the city. As he toured the world, his government reacted only after midday, focusing on propaganda about managing the consequences of the floods.

Today, instead of presenting a damage assessment and identifying those responsible, the prime minister has blamed the opposition and rainfall, even assuming the role of a meteorologist.

“I don’t understand why they are not blaming me yet, the government and the Municipality of Durrës, for the devastating rains of recent days in Italy, Greece, Montenegro, Croatia, and elsewhere… It’s quite strange. The oppositions there, at the very least they could blame their own governments, but nothing, not a word.”

After 12 years in power, Edi Rama resorts to propaganda even in times of disaster, denying Albanians any acknowledgment of their losses, even the clothes on their backs, caused by flooding. Yet once, while in opposition, he was the first to loudly proclaim that floods were the result of poor governance, not natural phenomena, phenomena he now uses as justification for abuses and mismanagement.

In the role of meteorologist and environmentalist, two years earlier, Edi Rama, then an opposition leader, also offered solutions on how floods could be prevented, so that excuses would no longer be sought in natural phenomena.

But unlike 12 years ago, when citizens spoke of the state’s commitment to managing the situation, today the opposite is happening: citizens report that state institutions do not even answer the phone, appearing only for the next media show.