TIRANA, July 8 /ATA/ – Democratic Party leader Sali Berisha has described the ongoing protests in Tirana as “the most important movement of the past 35 years”, comparing them with the student movement that led to the collapse of Albania’s communist regime in the early 1990s.
In an interview with British outlet Truth Times, Berisha said Prime Minister Edi Rama lacked the legitimacy to govern and called for his resignation, proposing the establishment of a non-partisan caretaker government.
Berisha said Rama had initially presented the disputed tourism project as an accord between private landowners seeking to develop their property with a private investor.
He said his position had remained unchanged throughout: he and his main opposition Democratic Party welcome foreign direct investment “with the only condition that it respects the law.” According to Berisha, he first expressed this stance three years ago when the Kushner companies investment was announced and repeated it “word for word” on the day the protests began.
“This position has not changed,” Berisha stated.
He argued that, from a legal perspective as he views it, a development or construction permit should only be granted after an investor has acquired land based on original state-issued ownership titles and when there are no active ownership disputes.
Berisha also condemned the dragging of a protester by private security personnel in the presence of state police, as well as the fencing off of the area with barbed wire. He accused Rama of disregarding both domestic and international law, saying the prime minister had acted like a ruler from past centuries who considered “land, water and air his personal property.”
“That is why I and the Democratic Party fully support the protest,” Berisha said.
On allegations of antisemitism, Berisha said the government had attempted to portray the protest movement as antisemitic, telling Truth Times that there was “substantial evidence” of official efforts to push the demonstrations in that direction.
He referred to the tearing of an Israeli flag near the Israeli Embassy during the protest several days ago as the basis for what he called “serious suspicions” that authorities had orchestrated the incident, noting that police had never publicly identified a suspect. He insisted that the protest movement “was not and is not antisemitic.”
He added that the protesters themselves had made their position clear, saying movement representatives immediately condemned the flag incident – a reaction he cited as evidence that the demonstrations had nothing to do with the label being attached to them.
/m.q/j.p/u.sh/
