By Lorenc Vangjeli
Rama has always ridiculed the protests of the official opposition against him. With more calmness than political instinct, this is how he faced their violent wave after burning the mandates in 2019, when the opposition committed suicide, with complete success. And as if to bring the fun to the end, then he treated the protestors betrayed by their evil, naive and devil-stupid leader with a cocktail of tear gas.
There was even more irony about the PD protests with Berisha at the head. The ever more wrinkled fists of the protestors were approached as rent from the “local” again with tear gas and pressurized water showers and pepper spray. Saving in this way the honor of Berisha, who could not coagulate the anger against Rama’s government with massiveness.
The recent protests in Tirana, originating in Zvërnec, are different. To answer them, he borrowed, as a return favor from Berisha, the former dictionary of the latter. The Prime Minister used the expression that “…they come around like jackals of the Golden Dawn…”. Thus implying that they are soldiers of a battle unknown to their commanders. At a time when every comparison carries the sin of being false, the comparison of the prime minister in every case is at least wrong and exaggerated.
In the Perfume protest, as it is called what has been happening for a few days in Tirana, in a cross section, there is a previously unknown mass of young men and women. From all layers and categories of society. From those who are honestly outraged by the pain of rare flamingos and pelicans, to anarchists and neo-Marxists who hate capital. Among them, maybe one can find a core inspired by the non-Albanian agenda, as Rama himself believes. But in mass they are part of an opposition many times bigger than what is represented by the official opposition flag and spears against the position. It is that part of the citizens who reject the cliché division between the left and the right, the power of the majority and that of the minority, and who are frustrated by the new Republic of ZeqiLand, which does not give its citizens equal chances. Who feel that politics, even when it swears in their name, no longer represents them. That they are unemployed and that they gladly show you that the free world is only a few tens of minutes away by plane from Rinas, from where their feet take them to where their eyes look. Who suffer from the terribly unequal distribution of income and the brutal increase in prices. Who see how the moral hierarchies of society have been overturned, where the strong and the bandit are honored and honest poverty is considered an unforgivable crime. Who witness how their vote is counted, but cannot choose. Who see how a banal and appointed elite, in politics and business, is separated from their lives even formally by fences in oases of vanity. That the product of theft is not hidden, but proudly boasted as a skill. Their frustration as spectators condemned to watch the reality spectacle of Big Brother, with the same characters for more than three decades, characters who change only the roles but not the names, has reached boiling point. Exactly this cross-section of the Perfume Protest should have been analyzed by a veteran politician like Rama. After that, most likely, he would completely change his approach to her.
Time will prove, even if the protest will gradually die down with the arrival of summer and the World Championship, that Edi Rama’s enemies are much more than those who go out on the Boulevard. Most likely, they will have in their portrait both envy of neighbors and hybrid war from countries unfriendly to Albania, but much more than that. Conspiracy theories that connect the famous Soros with a revenge against the ex-son for his soul from Albania can also be proven, together with the ex-son who fell into misfortune who once loved his ex-father with his soul. And it doesn’t end here because it can start here. What is terribly high and a bill that Albania and Rama’s self-will may be forced to pay by the end of this year, is the transformation of Zvërnec as a Casus Belli, a cause for war between President Trump and the Democrats in the USA. When Congress and the Senate meet after the midterm elections in November, they will most likely seek to investigate whether President Trump’s Daughter and Son-in-law have used political influence for private business. And beyond them, there may also appear European segments, perhaps German and British, who, beyond the formally correct language, find it difficult to coexist with an American president, at least atypical and unpredictable. And that they would rub their hands if Albania approached a spectacular weapon for the war against him. It is enough to see CNN, the New York Times and a series of traditional European media to understand that what the eye sees today is much less than what can happen tomorrow.
In this united front of enemies, Prime Minister Rama, who once said with pleasure that he lives “…in the solitude of the peaks”, however, is not alone. He has for allies that unknown mass of Albanians who have already counted the promised four billion investment in their pockets and another part of indifferent Albanians who do not distinguish between flamingos and sparrows. Beyond them, there are no more force accounts. Without the support of former friends with whom he won the anti-Berishe “revolution” in 2013, without the sympathy of new friends he has recruited from among old enemies, without the loyalty of mercenaries with many bosses like k..rvat with many clients, surrounded only by the incredible series of cruel crimes attached to him and the officials he himself appointed as politicians, Rama must to account for fatigue from power. In all this gloomy picture, paradoxically, he also has to hope for the generous help of his sworn enemy Sali Berisha. Rama probably still hopes to calculate that in front of the harsh portrait of Berisha, mutilated by Gërdeci and shot on January 21, she will continue to look like a high school girl who, for a whim of the moment, lost her virginity to her neighborhood harrakat neighbor. In the end, this is a world of contrasts and the calculation: “Well, it’s gone, but who’s coming?”, is always a dilemma that needs a solution…!
