TIRANA, October 21 /ATSH/ – Chairman of the Democratic Party Sali Berisha stated today that Prime Minister Edi Rama is threatening protesters after they refused to engage in dialogue with him.
During a meeting of the Democratic Party (DP) leading board, Berisha said that PM Rama continues to direct various types of threats toward the protesters.
According to the DP leader, Rama changed his stance following the protesters’ refusal to enter into a dialogue.
The DP leader claimed that Rama has threatened protesters with inclusion on “blacklists.”
“Today, he threatened protesters with blacklisting, lynching, the revocation of travel passports and the blocking of access to public transport. He is pulling all of this from the archives of his forebears. He threatens to hold them liable for damages,” said Berisha.
Berisha described it as hypocrisy for the prime minister to speak about damages caused by the protests.
“This man—who has made 130 million euros disappear into the Tirana incinerator, and a total of 200 million euros across three incinerators, none of which are even operational—is the one talking about damages,” said Berisha, referring to the incinerator projects. Berisha accused the prime minister of attempting to portray the protest as an “antifa” (anarchist) movement, in order to divert attention from allegations of corruption and ties to organized crime.
“The protest contains no elements of ‘antifa.’ The movement is directed against his egregious acts of theft,” Berisha stated.
He noted that the participants include university and high school students—many of whom are children of emigrants, having grown up with one parent absent due to emigration.
“These people are not ‘antifa.’ And he failed in the most shameful way when he tried to cast them as ‘antifa’ by orchestrating an attack on the Democratic Party (DP) headquarters—as well as attacks on DP offices across various districts,” Berisha stated, emphasizing that attempts to link the protesters to extremist elements have failed.
Berisha described the protesters as, “University and high school students who are liberators as much as the students of 1990 were.”
According to Berisha, Rama himself established a dictatorship; he pointed out that while the country may have faced a hundred other problems, it had previously experienced multiple instances of political transition (the rotation of power).
“The laws of this country may have flaws, but they did not prevent a rotation of power. You blocked that rotation by turning the elections into a farce,” Berisha said, addressing the prime minister and demanding his resignation.
These young people have decided to take Albania’s destiny into their own hands, and the future of Albania belongs to them,” stated the DP leader.
Berisha also noted a 15.3% decline in industrial production and a 28% drop in exports during the Socialist majority’s term in office. Furthermore, he reiterated that over the past decade, 1,099,000 Albanians have left the country—heading solely toward the Schengen area. /gj.m/j.p/p.s./
