President of France, Emmanuel Macron, who arrived on Monday evening in Tirana, presented the writer Ismail Kadare with the “Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor” decoration.

At the ceremony held in the Palace of the Brigades, Macron spoke more superlatively about Kadare’s literature, which, as he said, managed to deceive the censorship and the regime through genius metaphor and language.

“You refused to abandon your people, you preferred to deceive the censorship, to move the drama of Albania to old myths and legends. You reinvent a literature with which you deceived the regime,” said the French president, among other things

This is the first official visit of the French president to Tirana.

The next day, Macron will hold meetings with President Bajram Begaj and Prime Minister Edi Rama, with whom he will also hold a joint press conference.