Prime Minister Edi Rama began this Sunday’s meeting with Albanian emigrants in Milan, which is taking place at the Centro Congressi. This is the second meeting in Milan for the Socialist leader as part of the diaspora tour. Two weeks ago, he held two meetings with emigrants in Greece—first in Crete and then in Athens.

At the start of his speech, the Prime Minister was surprised by former Juventus footballer Alessio Tacchinardi, who gifted the Albanian Prime Minister a Juventus jersey with the number 5, saying that this number would bring him luck in the May 11 elections.

“Sisters and brothers, I am very grateful that, today, on a day off and at an hour when you could have done many other things, you chose to come here.

I am deeply thankful to all of you. This is the first time in our electoral history that you and all Albanians abroad will have the opportunity to vote without needing to come to Albania. I’m pleased that this—just as we promised from the beginning—we made a reality. Now, every Albanian man and woman has the chance to express their will outside Albania’s borders.

It was our fate—the fate of Albanians—to bring us to an election that is a final confrontation with our history, giving us, today’s Albanians, the chance to change the course of history with a vote. A vote to make history, a vote to shift the course of history, a vote to mark ourselves in history for what we together want to achieve.

These elections are a crossroads between a vote for the party that will lead for four years and a historic vote for Albania, which in four years we can make a full member of the united European family,” said Prime Minister Rama.