TIRANA, Oct 19 /ATA/ Prime Minister Edi Rama met on Monday morning at the Ministry of Interior with Minister Ervin Demo and senior State Police officials to discuss the protests held in the capital in recent days.
Rama expressed his appreciation for the police’s work, stressing that “there can be no negotiations with stones.”
Rama stressed that the state cannot negotiate with violence, warning that its consequences can leave scars that take years to heal.
“My gratitude and respect go to all of you, as well as to everyone serving under your leadership who is facing a wave of violence with dignity, strength, and courage. This violence has absolutely nothing to do with the legitimate reasons citizens in a free and democratic country may have to express dissatisfaction and demand more from their government.”
“I have brought this stone with me again today because it is important to hold it, feel its weight, and understand the danger it poses when thrown at people in uniform and the harm it can cause.
There can be no negotiation with violence, regardless of where it comes from. The moment the state begins negotiating with it, the state has already fallen. And when violence prevails, its logic becomes the logic of the state itself. Albania has witnessed this scenario more than once and has seen how its consequences leave wounds that can take years to heal,” Rama said.
He added that this should not be interpreted as a condemnation of those who are protesting peacefully, although, according to him, very few are doing so. Rama argued that even the young men and women joining the protests are not fundamentally seeking peace, but rather the overthrow of the government.
According to Rama, “these are young men and women who have been ideologically influenced and radicalized under the pressure or inspiration of a dark and emerging force that has appeared in Europe and the United States: Antifa, which the US president has designated as a terrorist organization.”
Rama stressed, however, that “this does not mean that the young men and women who think life is all about TikTok, and who believe they can make Albania a better place through TikTok without even being able to articulate a coherent thought, are terrorists. Absolutely not. They are students, both young men and women, of course. They are schoolchildren, both boys and girls, of course.”
However, the prime minister added that “they are hostages to a new mindset and ideology whose sole mission is to destroy, overthrow everything, tear everything down, and level it all to the ground, under the pretext of starting over from scratch.”
“Those who are a little older and are here today still remember that era, from which we emerged after 50 years of the illusion that everything could be levelled and rebuilt from the beginning,” Rama said.
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