Democratic Party MP Blendi Himçi has harshly criticized the law on tourist ports, describing it as a clientelist initiative that harms fair competition and favors a limited group of businessmen.

According to Himçi, the law approved by the Council of Ministers and the governing majority constitutes another case of "custom laws", claiming that dozens of such laws have been approved since coming to power.

Invited to "This Week" with Nisida Tufa on News24, he stressed that this initiative violates the principles of free competition and also conflicts with European Union directives, warning of a lack of transparency and parliamentary control in the licensing process.

"Another custom-made, clientelist law, in the wake of 18 such laws that have been approved by this government since coming to power and are made for a certain group. The part of fair competition is violated. Three EU directives are also violated, we will no longer have fair competition, the law will be determined by the government with a closed decision of its own and there will be no parliamentary control over the procedure for granting port licenses in a joint manner. The strategic investor will also freely benefit from the port.
In the responsible committee where I am the vice-chairman, the questions were: have there been such requests from strategic investors and we were told no. They were told that the World Bank has left the task of developing ports. When in fact we do not offer qualified services or infrastructure to tourism. Albania is unprepared for these things.
The bill was proposed on Tuesday, everything was approved in 10 hours.
"The violation of fair competition privileges some oligarchs close to Rama and business is no longer on an equal footing, some are favored and some are discriminated against. Rama favors the elite," he said.