"In a bitter reality where Albanian villages are emptying every day, where young people are leaving without returning to the west, while the lands remain barren and natural resources unexploited, VALEN finds time to be proud that 341.536.000 denars have been paid to 4.144 people," this is how the Alliance for Albanians reacted today, after the Ministry of Agriculture announced the payments to farmers.
The ASH says that it is not clear how many Albanian farmers have benefited from this measure.
"The payment, according to them, is related to direct support for measure 2.2 for registered cows older than 12 months, within the framework of the Program for Financial Support in Agriculture for 2024.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, these are "measures for all farmers," and are being implemented with dedication and fairness.
We ask the puppet deputy minister of VLEN, who appears in public only as a political interpreter for Minister Cvetan Tripunovski, how many of these beneficiaries are Albanians?
"How many of these funds have actually ended up in the hands of Albanian farmers who have felt excluded and discriminated against by the state's agricultural policies for decades?" say the ASH.
According to them, VALEN uses the ministry as a propaganda office to cover up the total failure in the development of Albanian agriculture, to mask the lack of policies to keep young people in the country, and to justify their presence in a government where they do not make any decisions.
"The Alliance for Albanians abandoned this position, precisely because it did not take into account farmers and rural areas inhabited by Albanians.
Albanians need investments for people and for life in the countryside. Today's policies only accelerate the mass exodus and the destruction of the Albanian rural structure.
The Alliance for Albanians demands full transparency, real representation of Albanian farmers in support programs, and not empty propaganda for media consumption.
"The time of translators is over. A true voice for Albanian agriculture is needed," the ASH response states.
