TIRANA, Sept. 9 /ATA/ – Prime Minister Edi Rama on Wednesday criticised the European Democratic Party (EDP) over its comments on a protest outside Albania’s parliament a day ago, accusing the party of portraying the obstruction of lawmakers as democratic dissent.
In a social media post, Rama said lawmakers had been forced to pass through a corridor of verbal abuse and physical violence, with eggs and stones thrown at them as they tried to reach parliament for work.
“So, for your particular breed of lazy democrats, preventing parliamentarians from entering the opening session of Parliament is ‘dissent’? Perhaps it looks that way from the comfort of your keyboard. But not to your Albanian colleagues, from right to left, who were forced to run a gauntlet of verbal abuse and physical violence, with eggs and even stones thrown at them, merely to reach their workplace. Are you not ashamed to endorse such despicable behaviour and sell it as democratic dissent? Apparently not,” PM Rama said.
Rama also referred to the verbal abuse directed at Socialist lawmaker Iris Luarasi, saying a respected academic and women’s rights advocate had been insulted and mistreated while trying to reach her workplace.
“By the way, watch how an honourable Member of Parliament, a respected academic and a widely known advocate for women’s rights, is abused by your role models of ‘dissent’ while merely trying to reach her workplace,” he added.
The government head questioned whether the EDP would comment on such conduct, asking whether its concern for democracy “ends where the uncomfortable facts begin”.
Rama urged the party not to involve Albania in what he described as a politically motivated narrative, saying the country is “genuinely free and much more democratic than your narrow-minded politics”.
“Albania does not deserve to become chewing gum in the mediocre mouths of people who trade facts for cheap political engagement,” Rama concluded.
/m.m/u.sh/
