There was no shortage of jokes in Brussels from Prime Minister Edi Rama during the conference to open negotiations for the last group chapter.
Rama said that if the EU wants to get rid of us, it must make Albania part of the union, or we will persecute them to the end.
The head of government said that our country has been loyal to empires, but emphasizing that previously they were imposed, unlike this time, which is an election.
Rama : Forget the years we have been working together, during which we are struggling to move forward with all the difficulties, the slaps and the punches, if you were to remove me, the government, the Albanians, who are doing their best, from the EU panorama and keep them in this panorama, would Albania be what it is today. No, this process has helped us in ways that would otherwise be impossible, because it may sound pathetic, or call it whatever you want, but it is the same as going to school and having to work hard and being told that you have to improve, and being told that you have to come back, because the exam shows who has done enough. But in the end, if you don't give up, you win. What Albania and Albanians gain from this process is something that goes beyond the chapters and the formal membership itself, they gain a country that is based on institutions, that functions on the basis of the rule of law, that functions on all the premiums that make EU countries so admired. The last year has been rewarding, but without the years that preceded it, which were not rewarding, this one would not have come. Being skeptical is not a bad thing, but we should not be able to work every hour every minute to make it a reality. We have a majority like in communist times it was the same in the Ottoman Empire, we are loyal to empires, this is the first empire we want to be with, this majority is different not only in numbers, but in essence, we were all head to toe behind the Ottomans, the Soviets, but head to toe because of imposition, and this is by choice, that's why Maria understood why Albania cannot escape. It's better to take us in than if not we will persecute them to the end, if they want to get rid of us, they want to take us with them.