Sali Berisha has reacted harshly to statements by Prime Minister Edi Rama, accusing him of manipulating facts and figures regarding protesters and police officers wounded during recent protests. In his statement, the Democratic Party leader used strong language toward the head of government, calling him a “spokesman of the prosecution of past times”. According to the Democratic leader, Rama has made accusations against various people but has forgotten his own past.
“Today he came before Albanians as a spokesman of the prosecution of past times. He accused, or presented a gallery of names, allegedly incriminated, with all kinds of charges”, Berisha said. He also referred to accusations that, in his view, the prime minister should have avoided due to matters of the past, adding that “mentioning the rope in the house of the hanged man is not wisdom”.
A significant part of the reaction was devoted by Berisha to the number of protesters and police officers wounded during the clashes. He disputed Rama’s statements about the ratio of injured between the two sides, claiming that the number of injured protesters is much higher. “The ratio of protester-to-police injuries is at least a minimum of 1 to 15, it may be 1 to 30, because there are dozens of hundreds of injured who avoid hospitals to avoid persecution”, said the Democratic Party leader.
Berisha accused the prime minister of manipulating figures and claimed that numerous cases of violence against citizens were recorded during the protests. He cited injuries from bullets, the use of force against protesters lying on the ground and, in his words, the violent treatment of minors. “Over these 11 days, Albanians saw skulls split open by bullets of protesters. They saw volleys of bullets over their bodies”, Berisha said, adding that footage from the protests, in his view, proves a high level of violence. He then described Rama as “shameless” and accused him of presenting false data about the situation created during the protests. “The truth is that the police officers who have been seen injured can be counted on the fingers of one’s hands”, Berisha concluded.