ARION SULO
Edi Rama continues to speak every day, but his political problem is that he is not saying anything. Instead of answering the accusations that come from the protest about poverty, corruption, the destruction of the territory, the environment, the cost of living, money laundering, health or education, Rama has chosen an ad-hominem attack according to the principle “don’t deal with what they say, but who says it”. He is inventing international agencies, from neighboring Greece to Iran, he is speculating that the marathon protests are the fruit of the “Instagram” algorithm and not the problems of Albanians, he is inciting diaspora Albanians to recite against other diaspora Albanians, who demanded his resignation on Saturday in Tirana – all in the style of “Enver’s anti-rallies”. The Prime Minister is also personally targeting protesters, he is writing letters to Dritan Goxhajn and he is begging another protester who spent the night on the steps of the Prime Minister’s Office not to lie. In the few times that he was confronted with the question of the “Financial Times” about the authorship of systemic corruption in the country, he used banal vocabulary towards the protesters.
He is doing everything to avoid responsibility, and consequently the solution. In fact, Rama is forced to behave in this way, because he has nothing more to say. The protesters are asking him to resign and change the political-economic criminal system, which he created himself and with which he became king. That’s why he attacks the protesters, makes their biographies and writes leaflets. In the same line, Rama is engaging the entire group of deputies to react against the mysterious algorithm, which according to him, raised the Albanians in protest. It has ordered the control of accounts on social networks and banks of the organizers, participants and supporters of the protest. The police are escorting and prosecuting citizens who go and protest peacefully. Taxpayers and IKMT are in action against the “illegality” of those who stand out every day on the boulevard.
This reaction speaks volumes. A power confident of itself and convinced that it enjoys the support of the majority of Albanians does not need to declare foreign enemies and incite Albanians against each other. He answers with arguments and solutions.
But today’s government cannot be confident in itself, since financial, political and moral corruption lies in its foundations. Having become one with the state, he uses the mechanisms of the latter to attack the protesters, as the only escape route left to him.
This is why the protest has gained something greater than the fulfillment of its demands. It has forced the government to show that the only means of protection are discretion and intimidation.
The essential question that Rama avoids is not about the organizers of the protest, but why so many people feel represented by it.
Why does the number of young people leaving this country continue to increase? Why does no one think that tenders, concessions, permits and licenses are deservedly won? Why is there a growing perception that people of value in this country are old-fashioned? Why does everyone know that the parties have turned into military wards since the 2008 agreement? Why is the belief that Rama and Berisha are together and support each other embedded?
Rama cannot answer these questions. That’s why he chose to attack them and not listen to the protesters. Politically, he has nothing more to say. Even if it is dispersed tomorrow, the protest revealed this weakness of his power./ MAPO
