The residents of "May 5" held today the next protest in front of the Parliament, opposing the demolition of the houses.
While the police asked the citizens to leave the Parliament, the resident of "May 5" Liza Marku asked to meet the Prime Minister. "We want the prime minister to come here. We are not leaving", she said.
For months, the residents of the "5 Maji" neighborhood have been organized in protest and resistance against the demolitions, they have testified for Citizens Channel a series of attempts to communicate with government representatives. Prime Minister Rama came to the square today and invited a representative of residents to talk about their problems.
After the meeting, Prime Minister Rama gave a statement to the media showing what was discussed in the meeting. Albanian Telegraphic Agency, reported on this event citing only the reaction of the Prime Minister, leaving out the voice of the residents.
Immediately after the meeting, Rama said to the media: "we had an intense conversation and I clarified what has been the truth since day one".
He also made a comment on the media reporting on the event: "but of course the truth has difficult roads because along the way there are many obstacles and many deliberate turns and deviations that are made even with the help of media channels, which have their own interests".
Meanwhile, from within the meeting, the residents have managed to filming moments of the meeting where, through a video, Laureta Nikolli shows the other side of what happened in the meeting and was not reflected.
Nikolli shows in the video that Prime Minister Rama spoke and did not listen to them express their thoughts and problems. In a statement to the media after the meeting and the publication of the video, resident Laureta Nikolli explained what happened at the meeting.
"First he listened to mother Liza, he listened to her until the end, then I tried to ask for the word several times, he said stop stop, while he was talking he was saying the same things as Erion Veliaj and I was telling him, you have come for to hear what requests we have or to say what you want, because he was telling us this is the project and we will give you these whether you want it or not", Nikolli said in one Remarks for the media.
She added that the part where the prime minister communicates with Liza Marku was filmed in the meeting and after she intervened and asked to talk about the problems the residents have, the cameras were turned off and the prime minister left.
Meeting with residents in Rama's video
A few hours later, a "live" video of the meeting was released pUBLIC on Prime Minister Edi Rama's Facebook profile page.
In the video, the resident Nikolli can be heard addressing him saying that she has some questions.
"Then, at the very end, if I don't answer all your questions.. you will ask questions. We will shelter all those who have been hit by the earthquake and are left on the streets, homeless. And we will accommodate all of you, completely", Rama addresses the resident.
She tried several times to speak, but Prime Minister Edi Rama interrupted her. "Okay, if you have time, talk. I thought you would finish and then run away, as they have done to us other times", said resident Laureta Nikolli.
Prime Minister Edi Rama says after Nikolli asks him when the apartments will be built: "Do be built when built. No, there is no deadline. They will be built when they are built. We are not talking about 10-15 years, the construction has started, until the reconstruction is finished you are on a lease contract paid by the government".
In a reaction to Citizens Channel, Nikolli indicated that the meeting lasted from 10:10 to 10:55. Meanwhile, the video published by the prime minister lasts 28:09 minutes. "17 minutes of the meeting that were not shown in the prime minister's video were removed", Nikolli scolded.
He completed master's studies in Investigative Journalism at the Department of Journalism at the University of Tirana. She has been working as a journalist for five years, where she previously covered issues of politics and parliamentary activity, in print and online media. She is currently a journalist at Citizens.al, where she covers various social issues related to the transparency of institutions. At Citizens.al, she leads the podcast "The Unheard" and is engaged as a manager of projects related to the support of investigative journalism.
