Prime Minister Edi Rama commented on the protests and the incident in Dublin, where during his visit to Ireland protesters threw eggs at the vehicle he was traveling in. During his speech at the Socialist Party Assembly, Rama mocked the protesters, also recounting an episode with the Irish police.
The head of government focused on how the Irish authorities managed the protest, comparing the police response there with the situations created during protests in Albania. He stressed that the right to protest must not turn into a right to block traffic and hinder other citizens.
Rama called for fines for blocking roads to be enforced and for legality to be applied to the end. He also commented on attacks against journalists and the publication of people’s addresses, describing these behaviors as unacceptable on Albania’s path toward the European Union.
Excerpts from Edi Rama’s speech:
“I saw a banner in Dublin saying they were not paying a fine for the protest. He wasn’t paying it because he stayed on the sidewalk; if he had blocked the road, he would have received the fine.
An Irish egg also came toward me; it was kind of darker, and I said maybe they had brought an eagle with them. The police officer told the Albanian there: ‘Don’t move.’ The Albanian froze; he was quite a big man. Two police officers went over, took him, and handcuffed him there. He didn’t move at all. ‘Don’t move,’ the officer told him and crossed the road. This is police violence, to be clear.
So, you can’t even imagine there playing with a police officer’s cap or using the officer’s cap to hold eggs, or throwing eggs at the officer and complaining why the officer is asking for the cap back.
The restoration of legality must be carried through to the end; fines must be enforced to the end. The right to occupy the road without police permission must not exist without the corresponding fine for blocking the road. How can we accept that 50, 500, however many they are, block traffic for everyone else? How can this be allowed? In the name of what right?
You don’t like the government? You are free to say so in ways that do not obstruct others.
There are some who think Albania becomes better if you join this backwardness, by attacking journalists, by publishing people’s addresses. We are here to reject and push back against them, because the treaty on Albania’s integration into the EU is about becoming part of a family that does not imagine such behavior,” said Rama.