Prime Minister Edi Rama reacted again today regarding the nationwide protest that has been taking place in Tirana for 18 consecutive days.
In a post on social media, the Prime Minister said he has genuine sympathy for everyone who joined the protest out of concern for nature and the environment. He also praised the aesthetic form of the demonstration, particularly the pink flamingo silhouettes displayed by protesters. However, according to Rama, the protesters refuse to listen to facts, discuss solutions, and coordinate efforts with institutions and credible expert sources to protect everything that should be protected while implementing the right project. In this context, he stated that “the flamingos are becoming tools of the crows,” referring to the opposition.
The Prime Minister’s Full Statement:
“THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS,” says an ancient proverb, and there is a reason why this expression has survived for centuries.
It does not diminish the value of good intentions. On the contrary, good intentions are the essential first letter in the entire alphabet of public engagement ethics. Yet the course of human history teaches us that good intentions alone are never enough. In fact, history is full of movements that began with the noblest slogans and the sincerest emotions, only to end in intolerance, fanaticism, or destruction because perception became disconnected from reality, imagination from facts, and concern from reason.
Therefore, if good intentions are not tested against facts, if the passion for change is not guided by reason, and if strong convictions are not accompanied by a willingness to listen, the distance between defending a principle, a goal, or a cause and turning it into an exclusionary dogma becomes very short. Thus, the road to hell is not paved with bad intentions, but with good intentions that refuse to be measured against reality.
I have genuine sympathy for anyone who joined this protest out of concern for nature at risk. In fact, this aesthetic form of demonstration, with its pink flamingo silhouettes, brings a sense of grace that would otherwise be missing from a civic environmental protest that was hastily transformed into a political demonstration, poor in ideas, weak in arguments, degraded in language, and made ugly by its street and digital bullying of anyone who thinks differently.
But this beautiful image brings me back to the proverb and the “road to hell.” Because the problem is not the flamingos. Their intention is good. The problem is that the flamingos refuse to listen to facts, discuss solutions, and coordinate efforts with institutions and serious sources of expertise to protect everything that should be protected while implementing the appropriate project. As a result, they become tools of the crows and ravens surrounding them.
I have listened to the flamingos and I understand them. I respect their concerns without prejudice because those concerns have always been mine as well. What I cannot understand is why the flamingos do not want to distance themselves from the crows that feed on noise, slander, and conspiracy theories, and from the ravens that, through bullying and the categorical rejection of every fact, seek to hold Albania hostage.
The flamingos do not lose their beauty if they engage in a constructive discussion about the future of the area and Albania’s path of development. Meanwhile, the crows and ravens remain what they have always been since November 28, 1912: a shadow that haunts Albania, but without any chance of paving a road to hell with the good intentions of the flamingos…”
