Prime Minister Edi Rama has reacted to the ongoing protests and to the concert held yesterday by singer Yll Limani, which took place at the same time as the demonstration.
Rama described the boycott campaign and criticism directed at the concert as a form of violence against the artist.
“I do not know Yll Limani. I do not listen to his music. But the online abuse directed at him, the calls to boycott his concert, and the threats following last night’s successful performance are, in my view, the most disgusting expression of a phenomenon that has accompanied the boulevard protest: a degradation of public life on social media that has now reached a new level of group violence. It should not be justified, relativized, or accepted through silence. It must be confronted with the power of words,” Rama wrote.
He went on to express concern about what he described as growing hostility from some protesters toward those who do not support the movement.
“On the other hand, a wave of verbal violence is growing day by day, filled with pressure, vulgarity, and threats against anyone who does not align with the boulevard protesters. From calls in the streets telling people to leave their cafés because ‘the homeland is calling,’ to demands for road blockades so that everyone is forced to join what they call a patriotic cause, and even to online intimidation carried out in the name of patriotism, which has nothing to do with the elegance and peace of flamingos,” he added.
Rama also compared certain aspects of the protests to extremist political movements, arguing that no extremist movement begins by seizing power through force, but rather by claiming to be the sole representative of the nation.
“No extremist movement starts by taking power by force. It begins by claiming that only it represents the nation, only it hears the voice of the people, and only it has the moral right to decide who is a patriot and who is not,” he stated.
The Prime Minister further argued that those who attack people online for not supporting the protests are harming one of Albania’s greatest strengths: its rejection of nationalist-socialist and neo-communist ideologies.
“Those who target online anyone who does not support the protest—who are undoubtedly the majority of the Albanian people, even beyond those who support the Socialist Party government—not only fail to make Albania better, but strike at one of the country’s strongest values: its organic rejection of nationalist-socialist and neo-communist ideologies. Albanians have suffered greatly from such ideologies in the past,” Rama concluded
