PM Calls Protesters ‘Barbarians’ as New Protest Is Warned on Friday Evening in Tirana

“This state belongs to the citizens, not to the barbarians! The government is taken with votes not with burning,” was the message that PM Edi Rama conveyed to an appeal for the resignation of the top police officer, Ardi Veliu in a post on Twitter on Friday.
Protesters warned that if Veliu does not resign the wave of protests will rise spreading across Albania. “Tirana will be burnt down,” was the latest ultimatum of the organizers of the protest who announced that they will gather at PM’s office on Friday at 18.00.
“They demand the resignation of the General Director of Police, otherwise they will burn and destroy?” Forget it! It is very wrong for anyone to think that the citizenship of the interior minister is a weakness and forget that this state belongs to the citizens, not to the barbarians! The government is taken with votes, not with burning,” an angry Rama said.
The interior minister, Sander Lleshaj
has resigned amid demonstrations after police fatally shot the 25-year-old, Klodian Rasha during the overnight curfew in Albania on Tuesday.
Several hundred demonstrators gathered outside Albanian government buildings in the capital on Thursday evening for a second consecutive night and violent clashes overwhelmed the capital. Police fired tear gas and used excessive violence to disperse the violent crowds spreading throughout the Capital.
“We will not allow anyone to destroy what has been built with hard work and the State Police is one of the examples of change, which continues with the toil of many people every day! Blackmail and violence against the police have nothing to do with with freedom or democracy,” warned Prime Minister Rama.
It should be recalled that the political career of Rama is ‘rich’ with violent occurrences among which mention can be made of the 42- day hunger strike in tents of SP when it was in opposition in ‘Deshmoret e Kombit’ Boulevard and particularly the January 21, 2012 when SP militants stormed PM’s building. Four people were killed due to the clashes and SP still holds responsible DP Chairman Lulzim Basha, the then interior minister.
Given the rising division even among various segments of the population and civil society some foreign analysts predict hard times ahead for Albania gripped by the coronavirus pandemic. A prominent Croatian political figure expressed sadness and concern about what is happening in Albania.
Earlier President, Ilir Meta has said that the “tragic” incident had “deeply shaken” everyone in Albania, and blamed officials for increasing police violence.
“In the last two years… acts of extreme and inappropriate violence by certain state police have escalated,” Meta has said.
/argumentum.al