By Desada Metaj
In all the opposition protests over the past few months, one of the most desired scenes has always been the same: heading for the Parliament. Going inside. Overcoming the police cordon. Pushing open the gates. Making that symbolic gesture of “taking the temple.”
They have even tried to do this several times in the most absurd way possible: in the evening, outside of Parliament's working hours, when it was known that no one was allowed inside. But symbolism, it seems, is always more important than logic.
So the narrative has been simple:
"We need to enter the Assembly."
Today something happened that rarely happens in Albanian politics: the opposition did not need to break through police cordons, push open gates, or light flares.
Its MPs were already inside the Assembly hall. With their MP cards in their pockets, with microphones in front of them and – above all – with Edi Rama in the hall.
In other words: the trophy was in hand.
And it is at that very moment that the most interesting twist in this story occurs.
The opposition calls for a protest... and leaves the Assembly hall to give speeches outside.
So, after spending months trying to get in, the moment he is where he has always wanted to be, he decides to get out.
A new political strategy, perhaps:
the battle to get in ends with the heroic act of getting out.
Because today they had another advantage: Rama was in the hall. They could confront him there, in the institution where political debate takes place.
But the opposition chose something else: to go out and give speeches in front of the cameras.
And so, instead of making the "last mile" towards power, which he has been saying for months, it seems he couldn't even make it a meter.
If the trophy is in the hall…
why did you choose to go outside?
