Prime Minister Edi Rama: Today I am here again with the Minister of Internal Affairs, who yesterday was on a visit to share experiences with other representatives of European countries and, at the same time, to further coordinate work with his counterparts in Italy and France. We are in constant contact with both these countries, since the scourge of ANTIFA’s urban terror has manifested itself with its blind force in all three of our countries simultaneously. Meanwhile, we also have a number of specific circumstances that we are monitoring very carefully.

Yesterday, I informed you about a long list of individuals with criminal records who, posing as students, but with no connection whatsoever to student status or to the imaginary student movement, committed acts of violence and have been detained and subjected to legal proceedings by the State Police.

A telling list, representative of a violent component of the protest that has become integrated into this diverse mass of people with a very clear purpose: destabilising the country and diverting us from our path, taking us back into the past.

Naturally, behind these individuals stand organised crime and foreign hands, which we continue to investigate intensively.

But what struck me most was, once again, the reaction of the corrupt television outlets to a list that, at the very least, should have prompted everyone to reflect on their failure to distance themselves from violence and on their continued relativisation of violence, always in the name of students, in the name of young people who, according to these television outlets, and especially the VIPs appearing on their evening programmes glorifying violence, are part of a “transformative moment” for Albania.

In fact, there is no other transformative moment here, only an open challenge involving problems that require attention, unquestionably problems of society, problems of ordinary families, problems of students, problems of young people, all legitimate, and violence: the language of stones, the language of clubs, the language of fire, the language of hatred, the language of insults and threats, which cannot gain civic legitimacy if we want a secure tomorrow for this country and for our children.

And here I want to make the distinction very clear, because I also want to make it very clear that we are working intensively, putting in long hours, to address both sides of this coin.

I must make it clear that we are paying very close attention, and I personally am paying very close attention, to the real reasons and causes that lead many people, regardless of whether or not they vote for me and the governing majority, to sympathise with a protest and feel the need to protest, even though they distance themselves from violence. That protest, that urban terror, was caused not by tens or hundreds of thousands of citizens, but by a diverse mass of people: ideologically radicalised ANTIFA supporters, religiously radicalised individuals, people encouraged and paid to incite religious division, people radicalised in their civic attitudes, people with criminal records planted in the crowd, disguised as students, to commit violence.

Protest is a right that no one can deny. The freedom to protest is a right that no one can question and that every democratic state must guarantee. And the path of peaceful protest is the path that leads to dialogue.

Yesterday, I had a friendly telephone conversation with a lecturer at the University of Medicine, known for his positions on, let us say, the other side of the political spectrum, but respected for his professionalism. I tried to explain to him that a protest is held in order to be heard. People protest when they feel that no one is listening to them about what they consider necessary.

So, a protest is held in order to sit down at the table. A protest is not held to overthrow the government or the governing majority through violence. Naturally, when this protest is not a political party’s protest, but a protest by a segment of the citizenry, its purpose is for us to sit down and talk.

And I asked him: What problems do you see that lead you to become part of this relatively very small group, compared with the entire student and teaching body, that comes here beneath my window? And the reasons he gave me all concerned specific matters at the university hospital, entirely legitimate matters. That is why I told him: All right, let us sit down, discuss them and see how we can take them forward.

So, any protest seeking to be heard becomes a problem when the government, the authorities, the institutions refuse to listen. But when the institutions, the government, the authorities say that we are here, we are ready to listen to you, we are ready to engage in dialogue, we are ready to understand one another and find mutual understanding, then insisting on continuing the protest makes no sense, if that is its purpose.

While the freedom to protest is an undeniable right, violence is a punishable crime.

And this is also why we are working in both directions: to address what we see as important psychological factors and people’s immediate need for a helping hand as the cost of living rises, to put it in general terms in this sentence; and, on the other hand, of course, to guarantee security, order and peace by taking measures against those who commit violence, by taking measures against anarchy, by taking measures against the idea that I am free to protest and, in the name of that freedom, can deprive everyone else of their freedom to move around, their freedom to work, their freedom to live, their freedom to take their children to school, and so on.

As regards that unquestionably respectable and respected part of society that seeks more support, more merit in the advancement of people’s abilities, more opportunities to find housing without being completely overwhelmed by the cost of housing in Tirana, that seeks greater redistribution and, let us say, social equality, we are absolutely focused, and we will soon announce the measures we will take.

Meanwhile, on security, on guaranteeing all freedoms and rights, we will likewise, in cooperation with our partners and taking into account the steps they have taken in Italy and France, come forward very soon with proposals and very concrete measures.

This is more or less the general picture I wanted to present before giving the floor to the Minister of Internal Affairs.

In the meantime, I want to tell you all that anyone who says that, until today, I have supposedly been, and we have supposedly been, indifferent to those who came beneath my office window for four months forgets that, in fact, for four months I have listened to everything they have said more than anyone else, and just as much as they have listened to one another.

Because I have been working upstairs in my office, while they have been swearing, insulting and threatening below it, without ever saying anything concrete and without ever asking for anything concrete, indeed continuously refusing to sit down and talk. And, as I have said, I have no intention of disclosing text-message exchanges with a number of those who were down there.

I have also spoken to them by telephone. I have invited them, and what has characterised them is fear of one another, a desire to talk, but fear of one another, fear that they would be branded traitors, fear that they would then suffer the consequences of violence from the others. There is an ANTIFA group there, ideologically shaped by the well-known “professor”, the well-known “preacher” of violence whom everyone knows and whom I do not even want to name, who have a truly remarkable ability and capacity to subject others to psychological terror and force them to follow them.

Then there has also been another component, a criminal component, people who have been present, hardened criminals who have played their part in that protest.

I am convinced that the days and months ahead will bring to light testimony from those protesters themselves, once they free themselves from this whole vortex of an entirely imaginary revolution, behind which there are also forces that do not want Albania to progress. 

Once again, to conclude: the protest, its aims, its reasons and, above all, the needs of that part of society that requires a more aggressive approach from the government to the rising cost of living and to problems concerning merit in the advancement of human resources, and so on, are the absolute focus of both myself and the government. It would be even better if we had a dialogue with those who want to articulate these needs and also express their ideas about how these needs can be addressed.

In any event, within hours or days, we will present our overall reflection on what a considerable part of society is trying to tell us simply by sympathising with a protest in which it sees both a need and a way to make the government even more attentive.

Meanwhile, all those who glorify violence, all those who amplify violence, all those who commit violence must understand that the response from the state will be as sustained and persistent as the urban terror, the terror inflicted on Albania’s population, on businesses and on ordinary families, was intense, concentrated and prolonged.

Anyone who thinks they can bring the state to its knees is making the gravest miscalculation. And anyone who thinks that, by hiding behind the guise of a student or exploiting society’s natural sympathy for students, they can bring ANTIFA’s urban terror here, can do the work here of those who want Albania divided along religious lines, who want Albania severed from its glorious history of tolerance, harmony and mutual understanding, must be clear that they will not only fail, but will pay. They will pay in a number of ways, from criminal penalties for those directly committing violence to financial penalties for those glorifying and promoting it.

Thank you all very much!