TIRANA, May 13 /ATA/ — On the 35th anniversary of the founding of Koha Jonë and 29 years after the newspaper was set ablaze, publisher and journalist Nikollë Lesi sat down with Prime Minister Edi Rama, who once wrote for the paper. During the interview, Lesi asked the head of government about Albania’s political climate, focusing in particular on the opposition.
Prime Minister Rama contended that the Democratic Party “has driven out those with intellectual standing, while the figures who remain are those who rise through the ranks of politics by virtue of foolishness.”
He added that within that political organisation, “individuals who display any measure of intellectualism cannot endure inside the structure.”.
Prime Minister Rama remarked: “Do you know what it means to be considered a personality within the Democratic Party today? It means to be distinguished for your foolishness — to possess such a capacity for foolishness that you rise through the ranks. That is how it functions.”
He continued: “How can one be both an intellectual and a Molotov‑thrower? Both an intellectual and a prominent figure in the Democratic Party? The two cannot coexist. If you look carefully at what has happened to that party since the time you mentioned — when you referred to Gramoz Pashko, did you not? — from that period onwards, what has been the defining characteristic of that party? Who has truly embodied intellectualism?”
Prime Minister Rama declared: “The organisation purged itself of them; it cannot retain them. It expels, expels systematically — it cannot hold them. And whom does the organisation absorb? Those capable of elevating the level of foolishness to proportions that ordinary people cannot reach.”
As to former Democratic Party chairman Lulzim Basha, Rama remarked with irony: “He was the last intellectual there, someone with eloquence and thought. But foolishness eventually caught up with him as well. Still, he was an intellectual not in the exact sciences, but in the more flexible sciences.”
During the discussion, publisher Nikollë Lesi brought up the issue of censorship and self‑censorship in the media. Prime Minister Rama responded that the majority of media outlets adopt a critical stance towards the government.
He added that, in his assessment, “the bulk of headlines amount to a campaign of war against the government.”
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