Prime Minister Edi Rama and opposition leader Sali Berisha have faced each other for the first time in the media. And this was made possible by the international media outlet "Politico", which dedicated an article to the opposition protest yesterday.
In a rare case where both Sali Berisha and Edi Rama comment on an article in an international media outlet, the recycled statements and usual stances of the two main political actors in Albania stand out.
On the one hand, Edi Rama avoids direct confrontation with the protests and violence, relativizing the situation and defending SPAK as a “newly born” institution that is making mistakes. He refuses to comment on the calls for resignation and tries to present political opponents not as a threat, but as “desperate Albanians”, shifting the debate away from political responsibility.
On the other hand, Sali Berisha maintains his classic harsh and accusatory line, describing Rama's government as the most flagrant form of violence against citizens, through systematic extortion and robbery. For Berisha, protest is a legitimate act in the face of a government that, according to him, has lost all legitimacy and should not remain in government for another day.
Full text:
Thousands of people gathered in the Albanian capital Tirana on Monday as the opposition demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama over corruption allegations against his deputy prime minister, Belinda Balluku, whose parliamentary immunity has so far blocked her arrest.
The political crisis in the Balkan country has been building for weeks since anti-corruption prosecutors accused Balluk of meddling in major state contracts. It reached a peak on Monday evening, when Molotov cocktails were thrown at Rama's office.
Four protesters were arrested during the clashes and seven others were placed under investigation. Two police officers were injured and one protester accidentally set himself on fire, local media reported.
The protest, organized by veteran opposition leader Sali Berisha and his Democratic Party, followed scenes of chaos in Albania's parliament last week, when police intervened after deputies clashed and lit flares inside the chamber.
“We do not accept any form of violence, especially violence exercised by those in power. There is no more flagrant form of violence than the systematic extortion and robbery committed by Edi Rama and his ministers against the Albanian people,” Berisha told POLITICO on Tuesday through his spokesperson, saying the protests were intended “to stop this violence.”
Prosecutors and opposition MPs are pushing to lift Balluku's immunity so that anti-corruption prosecutors can arrest him and bring him to trial. Rama and his ruling Socialist Party have so far postponed the vote, saying they will await a ruling from the Constitutional Court, expected in January.
Balluku is accused, along with several other officials and private companies, of manipulating public tenders to favor certain companies in major infrastructure projects, including the Tirana Ring Road and the Llogara Tunnel.
She has called the allegations against her “insinuations,” “half-truths,” and “lies,” and has agreed to cooperate fully with the judicial process. Balluku is also the infrastructure minister, overseeing some of the country’s largest public projects.
Rama has also defended Balluku in the face of corruption allegations, accusing the anti-corruption agency, known as SPAK, of normalizing pre-trial arrests, saying they constitute “arrests without trial” and contradict European democratic standards.
The prime minister told POLITICO in an interview on Wednesday that it was “normal” for SPAK to make mistakes, as it is a “newly born institution with a newly born independent power” that has made “a lot of mistakes.”
When asked on Tuesday about his reaction to the violent escalation of protests and calls for his resignation, Rama declined to comment. He said he did not want to attack his political opponents, “because ultimately they are not enemies to be exposed to the world, but simply desperate Albanians, who must be confronted and dealt with within the confines of our internal political life.”
Berisha responded by accusing Rama of election theft and telling him that the time had come for him to leave.
“He has no legitimacy to stay in government even for one more day,” Berisha told POLITICO. Rama was re-elected in May for a fourth term.
